Luffy, Always Bounces Back
by Abigail Skywalker
Summary: Luffy is a child, How did this happen? And how will the adult pirate crew take on this new responsibility. How do they protect a boy who lives so unguardedly, but now he's weak, and can't protect himself.
1. Shrunken

**So, I had this idea way back when I saw Luffy using his Gear 3RD at Enies Lobby. Luffy can shrink? Interesting. And I was looking forward to writing something that was original and hadn't been done before. But then I saw One Piece Movie Z. **

**And I thought, OH!**

**:( **

**They stole my idea!**

**But then they did make the movie, and although it was over all to soon I like the idea of someone in the crew loosing their years or gaining them. So I went back to this, and Actually started writing it. Yay for Nami and Luffy.**

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Luffy, Always Bounces Back: Shrunken.

Chapter 1

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Somewhere on the Grand Line off the shore of some island, there was a pirate ship. It was basking in the wake its own glory as it rode the choppy waves that came crashing into it. It's Pirate's Jolly Roger flying in the sea breeze whipping back and forth proudly, while all other sails and fabrics had been tied down to protect them from the strong winds.

Now, it was morning in this location, and the crew of the pirate ship were awakening, feeling the need to be filled with a massive breakfast as per usual. It wouldn't come as much as a surprise to anyone reading that these pirates were not really morning people so they didn't really pay attention to one another when waking up. So, it's no little surprise that the guys didn't notice anything unusual when stumbling out of their quarters, because their only thought was to get up on deck and to the kitchen. No one noticed there was something incredibly quire about a certain boy.

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Luffy woke up. He was used to sleeping on the floor, so when he woke up in a sort of bed hammock thingy he grinned and swung it side to side enjoying the tickly feeling it gave his stomach. That was until he fell out of his hammock. His head flatterned on the floor, with a loud bang, and then sprung back into its natural shape and place above his neck. And this is when Luffy realized he didn't know where he was.

"GA! What the heck! Where am I?" Luffy looked down at his cloths and saw they were far too large for him. He tied himself up as best as he could with a rope he found in the corner to stop his blue pants from falling down, and then started to panic. "My hat!" his stomach rumbled loudly. "My tummy hurts. NEED FOOD." he looked up above him and saw his hat sitting proudly next to his hammock now if he could just reach it. It took him about three arm throws to get it right, and then he pulled it down onto his head.

He grinned, "Now time to eat!" He charged out the door of the room and outside onto a deck. "Ohhhhhh!" Shock hit him as he looked around. "So cool!" He shook with excitement the need of food temporarily forgotten as his sense of adventure took over.

He ran down the stairs onto the grassy lawn, and immediately started rolling on it. "Wow, grass on a ship!" He stretched his hand's palms outwards as if praising the skies. "Best Ship Ever!" The wind whipped away the sound of his voice as he lay on the grassy deck. He then noticed how much fun the mast looked, and decided to climb it.

"Up, and Up, and up. I Go!" Luffy started singing to himself. "Ace is fat and Sabo's Slow!" He almost reached the top when he heard yelling down below.

"Oi! Luffy!" Luffy looked down, a person with blond hair who he had never seen before was calling for him.

"Huh? What a weirdo?" Luffy spoke to himself, and then loosing his firm grip to the mast he fell.

"Luffy you had better hurry up or..." The cook Sanji stopped as heard Luffy falling from his high place on the mast. And ran over to kick him for scaring him. But what he saw only held him steadfastly where he stood.

"What in blazers name...? Luffy!?" The blond-haired chef picked up an eight year old Luffy.

Luffy didn't know who this man was, but he was not going to be called Blazers. "Yeah! Who the Hell are you!?

Sanji snatched the miniature pirate and tucked him under his arm, and ran as quick as he could to the kitchen. "Guys, I think we have a big, or I mean a little problem on our hands." He held up the tiny Luffy and the rest of the crew gasped at what they saw. Their Captain, the one who leads them on this journey, was kicking and screaming for Sanji to let him go struggling to set himself free from the cooks grasp.

"Let go of me BAKA!" He tried to kick him as he wiggled. "Let go! Let Go!" and then in a breath of oxygen his brain registered the presence of food. He stopped kicking, and turned his head in the direction of the smell, and saw a table laden with food with some more funny looking people round it. His mouth began to water and he reached out for the heavenly delights. "KA... GIVE ME FOOD."

Sanji turned him around and looked into his small child's face, "Now, what do you say."

"Sorry I kicked you." Luffy's eyes still looking in the direction of his new love.

"And."

"I love food."

"AND!"

"I need food, give me some, Greedy gob!" At that Sanji kicked him on the back of his head and allowed him to crash into the floor at the other side of the room.

At this, when the small boy had sat up he began to cry. "Your so mean... huuuh!... I'm only hungry. … huuuh!" He started with a small whimper and then began to wail.

"Oh! Sanji! Look what you did! Can't you see his just a little kid!" The girl with long copper coloured hair approached the child on the floor, and picked him up.

"Who are you!" Luffy asked again, it suddenly dawned on him he didn't recognize any of the people here. "Where am I!? Where is Ace!? Where is Sabo!?"

The woman took him in her arms and stroked his back up and down. "Don't worry, it's okay you're safe. It's okay." she stroked his black hair, kissed his forehead, and picked up his hat and put it firmly on his head. She then stood back up and brought him to the table in her arms. "Why don't you sit with me, Luffy, we can have Breakfast together." She sat him down on her lap because he would hardly be able to reach the table by himself.

Luffy looked out hungrily at everything before him. 'all I need to do is stretch and get that.' Nami grabbed his hand before he was able to stretch it. "Now, Luffy what would you like?"

Luffy smiled up at her, he wasn't used to being asked that, "Everything!" he replied with a gleeful cheerfulness that only comes from ignorance.

"We'll give you some of it." she started pulling a few plates closer to him. "Now, I had better introduce you to everyone." She pointed to the chef first, "Over there is Sanji our chef, the man who found you and who cooked you this delicious meal." Luffy didn't understand the threatening glare coming off Sanji he just gave him a smile _'He makes food'_. Next she pointed to the swordsman, "and here is Zoro our swordsman, next is archaeologist Robin," she pointed to the dark haired woman, "and here is our musician Brook," and Luffy's eyes bulged as he saw this person didn't have any, "and here our Shipwrite Franky, and this is Usopp..."

"Do not worry my young little lad!" Usopp said in a loud performing voice. "For you are a brave member of the USOPP PIRATES!"

"Wow! Really!" Luffy exclaimed with delight. It was then that he noticed a Reindeer sitting at the table next the sniper guy. "That raccoon dog looks tasty!"

"I'M NOT A RACCOON DOG! I'M A REINDEER! BAKA!" Chopper yelled. "And you can't eat me!"

"It talks!" Luffy yelled with surprise, and leapt across the table to embrace it. "I never met a talking animal before." He grinned at the reindeer. "You have too Join my future Pirate Crew!" at his words everyone round the table dropped from their seats. Their Captain really hadn't changed at all.

"Luffy?" Nami Started.

He gripped his hat firmly onto his head, and glanced at the girl who had been talking to him. "What's your name? And what do you do?" he asked her.

"My name is Nami." She said with a smile. "I'm the navigator for this pirate ship. Welcome!"

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**So what do you guys think? Interesting? Or no... **

**REVIEW, OR PM ME. Can't wait to hear from you.**


	2. Bath Time

**Thank you everyone who has reviewed. I don't think I have ever got that many reviews all at once before, it's really exciting. Thank you guys.**

_ichigi111kurosaki_

_sess18_

_Shannon Sumner_

_wushu723_

_scatteredPhilosopher _

_AfroRadish _

**By the way Shannon Sumner, I can't just reveal how Luffy became Little now can I? That is for the crew to work out. It's a mystery.**

**So to recap. **

**Luffy can't remember anyone on the crew. He is eight years old. He remembers Ace and Sabo. He has decided he wants to be the King of the Pirates already. He is getting used to his gum gum powers, but he is not good at it yet. **

**We saw how Nami loves children during the Punk Hazard Arc, when she tries to save them all from being marine experiments. She hits Luffy a lot a tells him off quite a bit, so what will she do now he's just a kid? Will the hitting continue or will she become super protective?**

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Luffy, Always Bounces Back: Bath time

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Chapter 2

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These were the sort of occasions when people come together and discuss things of a serious nature. And indeed it was true the Strawhat Pirates were very worried about their Captain, and wondering how in all of the Grand Line's weirdness, had their Captain become a child. They could do nothing that they knew of that might help him in any way. He remembered nothing of their adventures, and to put it plainly it was terrifying. The idea that he didn't really know them like he used to was strange, like that time when the entire crew apart from Robin lost their memories, except now it was just Luffy. For he had, in his own way, always been keeping the group together. He drove them forward with his enthusiasm, and although he still had that enthusiasm and in abundance. He did not have the strength or will power to back it up.

So they were gathered outside, sifting through the relevant and irrelevant events that had taken place the last couple of days. To find where it had exactly gone wrong, and what Luffy might have done to get this way. It didn't help when they had an oblivious child running this way and that trying to distract them from their discussions every few seconds.

"Al-right everyone! Gather round! Gather round!" The brave and fierce Captain Usopp called. He pulled on to the deck a massive black board that he had put together in the construction room below, and proceeded to write on it with a stick of squeaky white chalk.

"So, for now we can conclude that this was an accident. We have not been attacked, or approached by enemies, and no one has attempted to kidnap Luffy, and he hasn't gotten lost anywhere recently. So,... WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!" Usopp's calm persona vanished into the fresh breeze. "WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO! IF THERE ARE NO ENEMIES THEN HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET HIM BACK TO THE WAY HE WAS BEFORE? WE HAVE NO ONE TO ASK WHAT IS WRONG? AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

It was obvious he was having a hard time adjusting to the information, but there was someone on the crew that seemed to be hardly effected by the strange occurrences at all.

"We mustn't jump to conclusions." said the calm archaeologist, Nico Robin. "Just because we haven't seen an enemy doesn't mean one isn't out there."

"Robin! That doesn't help!" Usopp said worry and nervousness laced throughout his loud voice.

Robin answered, "I'm just pointing out the obvious. We need to remain alert. But I must say it is far more likely that Luffy has fallen in, or eaten something strange that has made his body change so drastically."

At her words everyone took another glance at their Captain, who just so happened to be playing with the only one who wasn't able to join their conversation, Tony Tony Chopper. He was riding the Reindeer's back as he ran around the ship and thoroughly enjoying himself, as his new friend Chopper tried to shake him off. The crew sighed. Knowing their Captain there could have been a number of different things he could have eaten from the Island they had been on yesterday. What were they going to do next?

"Oi!?" Luffy called out to the boring group. Curious he stopped his ride and charged towards them and came to a pause in front of Zoro, of whom he suddenly found very interesting and stood there staring at him.

Zoro sighed, "What do you want Luffy?" He gave his very best 'you will hate me, so go away' glare. To which or course the dear child Captain was not in the least affected.

"Come fight with me! I can beat you up!" Luffy pucked out his bottom lip, and pulled out his fist. "Don't cry if I hurt you! My punch is like two pistols!"

"Really?" Zoro smirked at Luffy's challenge. It was hard to take any sort of threat from his Captain seriously, especially in this state. "Okay, give it your best shot." He leant backwards and waited for his Captain to hit him.

Luffy seeing his opportunity, punched out his fists as hard as he could. To the shock of the whole crew his arm was shaky and wobbly like the freshly cooked noodles that Sanji liked to make. But they missed their target Zoro perfectly, and he hadn't had to move an inch. The unfortunate Usopp, however, who just so happened to have been standing behind him was sent spinning and twisting off towards the starboard side of the boat. Usopp thought fast, and instantly grabbed a hold of Luffy's arm to prevent being thrown overboard and he came to a stop.

Luffy was not so fortunate. Having his arm stretched but held in captivity by someone stronger and heavier than him simply meant the force of gravity had been reversed. So instead of pulling his arm back to him as he intended, he was pulled by the elasticity of his own arm, out of the circle of pirates and catapulted, screaming, out to sea.

The crew rushed to the edge of the ship watching in horror as their Captain did not try and reach back and pull himself in as usual, but instead just fell like a rock and hit the ceiling of the sea beginning his descent down into the wild depths.

"YOU IDIOTS!" Nami smacked both Zoro and Usopp over the head. "QUICK GO AND GET HIM BEFORE HE SINKS!"

Robin crossed her arms and many more appeared and reached out to grab a hold of Luffy. They got him, but with the way he was grabbing her and trying to pull himself up onto something that just was not there, sea water making her arms too weak to pull him in. "I can hold him up, but someone needs to get him." she said, her voice sounding strained.

Franky ran to operate the Coup de Brust! But Nami stopped him. For it might just cause the ship to land on him if they didn't get it right, and they didn't want Robin to lose her hold on him. Zoro and Usopp made for the Miny Merry, Brook jumped overboard and started running on water, which caused Nami to yell at him for being so stupid because he would probably sink too. And Sanji made it just in time to prevent Chopper from jumping overboard aswell.

It was Usopp that rescued Luffy from the sea in the end with his brilliant fishing wire that he fired and retracted from his utility belt, while Zoro dived into the water to save their drowning musician Brook.

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Once Luffy had been brought back on board, Nami grabbed him and wrapped him up firmly in a towel. She used as second towel and rubbed dry his wet black hair. He might be her idiot Captain, but she could tell when a child was scared and right now Luffy was a child, not her Captain. She sat down with Luffy in her lap and stroked his back over the towel. She could still feel his arms and legs shaking from the fear of drowning. Luffy tried to push away from her.

"Don't touch me! I'm not afraid of dying or drowning. I'm not afraid of sea monsters either." The entire crew could tell that Luffy was lying, tears were streaming down his face. It was as if in being in denial he could somehow change his weakness into strength. Luffy tilted his head down trying to hide his tears and put his hands onto …

"My hat! My Shanks Hat! Where's it gone!" Luffy cried. The look of anger, and worry etched into his young face, as his hands were unable to find anything at the top of his head.

"It fell off you before you went flying." Nami said, pulling his hat out of nowhere and placing it on her Captain's head, "Don't worry Luffy, I've got your back." There must have been something in her words that broke a chord with him, because he just hugged her and burst into tears on her lap.

"You guys carry on the discussions." Nami spoke as she stood up, and moved Luffy up holding him tightly. "I'll take Luffy back inside and clean him up. And I'll see what I can do about making some of his clothes fit him better. We'll be back soon." She carried him into the bathroom and started to run a bath. Maybe if she could help him realize that water wasn't all that scary if you were careful around it, he would calm down a bit more. She turned the taps and the warm water came splashing out into the creamy white bath tub.

"Oi Nami?" Luffy asked, he seemed a bit calmer just being away from everyone else. He was always louder when people were watching. Such a performer.

"What is Luffy?" she smiled at him encouraging him to go on.

"Is this an inside fish pond?" She had to stop herself from bursting out in laughter.

"No, Luffy."

"Is it a mermaid bath?" So he had heard of mermaids had he?

"No, Luffy." She replied with a small giggle.

"Do you wash your clothes in here?"

"No, I don't normally, but you could if you wanted to." She smiled down at him. "This is where I wash myself." she took off her jean pants, and made sure her bikini was still very much in place. Luffy might be a child, but she wasn't going to be naked around him. Not that he would have cared. She looked down at him and saw his wide eyes take in the enormaty of the bath itself.

"THIS IS YOUR BATH BARREL! IT'S SO COOL!" He started running left to right trying to see every aspect of the 'bath', "It's so big! WOW!" He grinned up at her with his hands closed over his head protecting his treasure. "It's like a King's bath!"

"Perfect for the Pirate King, hey?" Nami said. Luffy grinned at her and gave her his good, famous, and old-fashioned giggle thing.

"Come on." Nami said standing up and stepping into the water. She added some bubbles to the mix, and sat down. "Get ready for your bath and get in." she patted the bubbles beside her and blew them across the bath.

Luffy, excited about being in such a massive bath, pulled off his very large and bulky teenagers clothes and jumped in. Nami grabbed him and pulled him out of the water. Why did Luffy always have to be so hyperactive? The grin he gave her though when he came back up was all she needed to see to know just how amazing her Captain was.

Nami frowned, remembering the shock of seeing him flying out to sea, she looked at her Captain. She couldn't believe how much the crew had not really appreciated all the work and strength of Luffy. Seeing him unable to do even the very simplest of his devil fruit moves made her feel bad. He was definitely a very different person. She had always assumed that using a devil fruit power would have been easy, but it obviously wasn't. To Nami it was easy enough to deal with the foolishness and idiotic behaviour of the normal Luffy, she just kicked him or punched him and he would take it smiling. It was her way of venting out frustration, and his way of showing he cared enough about her and her worries to let her do that without complaining. But she wasn't used to seeing him so vulnerable and able to get hurt so easily and so upset over the small things. It made her feel very protective.

He was excessively loud, noisy, and playful in the bath, and she had to prevent him from sliding under a number of times. "Luffy, be careful." she said after the third time.

"Heshishishishishi!" Luffy giggled, and moved away from her to do something else.

"No, it's time to wash." She grabbed him and sat him down in front of her. She poured some of her shampoo into her hands and rubbed it into his hair. He had very thick black hair, but she could never remember him actually cleaning it. He was such a mysterious boy. She had never asked him about his parents or family or where he grew up. In fact she had never really asked him about his childhood at all. "So Luffy, where were you before you woke up here."

"I was sleeping at Ace, Sabo's and my secret base." He reached his hands up over his head. "It's in the biggest tree ever and I want to have my own spy glass so that Ace doesn't take it." She frowned she still wasn't quite sure how Luffy's mind worked, but there was something interesting about this story.

"So, who is Sabo? Luffy."

"He's my big brother, along with Ace. We are going to have our own pirate crew one day." he paused as if thinking about something important. "Maybe not, we couldn't decide on who would be Captain, so our pirate flag ended up all messed up." he looked back at Nami. "I said I'd become the King of the Pirates, and they would have to make me their Captain, but they said I was too little." he pouted again.

"Well, that was good advice." Nami spoke up. "You need to grow up first and become a strong young man before you can become a Pirate King, you know." She moved the shower head down from it's place on the wall, "Close your eyes Luffy." and proceeded to wash out all the thick soapiness that was in his hair. She remembered what she had been like at this age compared to Luffy she had been really naughty. He was actually quite a good kid. She would have tried to hit her mum while washing her hair, she had hated it when she was younger, and then insisted that she could do it herself.

Once she had given him a good conditioning as well, she ran out the bath and got dried, and then dried the small child as well. She had been quite sure that she was a lot bigger when she had been this age, but then Luffy had always been a little bit small. Maybe it's because he's so elastic. She got dressed again wrapped Luffy up in his towel.

"Alright!" she said, "You ready for some new clothes?"

"Yeah!"

She took him to her room. Any of her clothes would fit him better than his own. She pulled out some of her t-shirts. "How about this Luffy?" It was one of her old vests that had been left on board the Thousand Sunny in the two years they had been apart from one another, but had somehow not gotten to damp, which was good, it held a lot of memories.

"G.O.L.D." he frowned, "Why does it say it's gold when it really isn't?"

"It says gold, because that is what I like. And I'm a pirate who likes gold, so why not wear it." She pulled it down over his head, and although it had been super tight on her it fit him fine. She was glad it had been so elasticated because it fit him nicely.

"There now doesn't that look good." She said. Now all she had to do was find him something decent to wear for his bottom half. She pulled out an old skirt she hadn't worn in ages. She could cut it up and sew the seams together. Yep, that would work.

For the next one and a half hours she was sewing up her old skirt, while giving Luffy some of Sanji's snacks that she had thought she could finish later, but never quite did.

"Okay! Done!" She said, and held them out to him. "Here try this one on now." He pulled them on and tied them up, and they fitted just as well.

"Thank you Nami!" he clapped his hands and jumped up and down in his new clothes. "I got gold! I got new stuff." He grabbed his hat, bolted out the door, and ran down to the deck. Nami felt exhausted, but happy. She seemed to be always fixing Luffy's stuff.

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Sanji looked at his Captain in horror, "Why are you wearing Nami's clothes, Baka!?"

"Nami gave them to me. Because we both like gold!"

"Huh? What the hell? That doesn't make sense?"

"Yes, it does!"

"No, it doesn't."

"I don't care!" Luffy turned his back on the cook.

"Oi Luffy, you need to be careful from now on all right?" Zoro said.

"I don't care! You're not the boss of me!" Luffy ran away from him and started climbing up the mast again.

Nami came out of her room when she heard the noise and saw what was going on. Now, what did Bellemere use when she used to get mad.

"Luffy!" She called up to him bringing his attention back to her, "Forget those idiots! Why don't you come down for now? I've got some paper and colouring tools you can use. Do you want to draw some pictures?"

His eyes lit up at the idea of doing drawing. He loved drawing. He jumped down and ran to her. "Where? Where? Let me have some! I want to draw!" He was grinning as she fetched him some paper from her room, picked him up plopped him down into a deckchair. It was quite surreal seeing how calm it made him almost instantly.

"You will make a wonderful, stunning, beautiful mother some day, NAMI!" said the love-struck Sanji with hearts in his eyes. "You are just so..."

"Manipulative." added Zoro. Earning a kick in the face from Sanji for his honesty.

"What the hell did you say about my sweet Nami!" Sanji's face was burning with fury.

"I don't care about your delusions for our Navigator. You Stupid Love Cook. We need to focus on helping our idiot Captain." Zoro replied bluntly. Picking himself off the ground he walked to the abandoned chalk board, and picked up Usopp's leftover chalk. They hadn't gotten very far in their discussion since she had left. Typical.

Zoro continued, "What we need to do is go everywhere Luffy went yesterday, and basically retrace his footsteps and try and find anything unusual that might have caused this change." He tapped the chalk board wrote down in big bold letters, 'SEARCH THE ISLAND FOR THE CAUSE OF LUFFY'S AGE LOSS.' "This," He hit his words with the chalk tip, "is what we need to do today. He was on the Island all of yesterday it only makes sense."

"Yohohohoho! Yes, swordsman san." Brook said, filling the air with his catching laughter. "It makes a lot of sense, I can see what you mean. Although I have no eyes." (he pauses for effect). "Yohohohohoho!"

Luffy got up and ran over to them. "Nami! Nami! Here's a picture of you!" He held up his newest drawing and shoved it into her hands. "See!" He said pointing.

You could almost make out at it was a person, it didn't really have any curves. But the skin colour was very obvious, and so were the colours for her bikini, but what really made the picture look like Nami was the flaming orange hair that cascaded down her back and almost reached her feet.

Nami hugged Luffy. "It looks very good Luffy."

Luffy pointed it some orange and yellow dots on the white page, "Look, I even drew you some Gold."

"So you did, you are very clever Luffy." and she hugged him and kissed his forehead. He really was an adorable child.

She saw flames ignite out of the corner of her eye and turned around to see what it was.

"Alright! Listen up everyone!" Sanji yelled. "We really need to find what caused Luffy to shrink. Let's go!" He jumped off the ship and swam for the island.

"Do you really think he's doing it for Luffy?" Franky asked no one in paticular.

"Knowing his history." Robin replied, "I seriously doubt it."

"Yohohohoho! Everyone should know, that Luffy is this way because he doesn't drink enough milk. It makes your bones healthy. I should know because I'm all bones. Yohohohohoho."

"Shut up you moron!" Zoro and Nami yelled at him

"Hashishishishishshi." Luffy didn't understand the joke, but he knew he liked these people they were pretty cool. He ran to side of the ship where Sanji took off and leaned over the edge. "Everyone!" he yelled. "Let's go to the island!"

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**End of chapter 2. Super long, but quite fun. **


	3. Luffy's Log Book

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**Guess who's back... **

**Back again... **

**Luffy's Back... **

**Tell your friends... **

**Guess who's back**

**Guess who's back**

**Guess who's back**

**And it goes on and on. By the way I'm not Oda in disguise. I don't own One Piece. So don't expect this to be coming up anytime soon in the Manga or anime. I am just the invisible voice that calls out of the world wide whiteness (that is fake computer pages).**

**I must thank my 'Concerned Guest'. I totally did not notice that error until you pointed it out. It made me laugh out loud, that I had made such a stupid mistake. It's a good thing this story isn't being printed, and that I can go back anytime and change mistakes. :D**

**.**

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Luffy, Always Bounces Back: Luffy's Log Book

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Chapter 3:

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**A little something about Luffy.**

Sometimes the ferocity of Luffy's orders would take all his crew by surprise, but then again when had he ever been unsurprising. Although they hated how regularly they were put into unnecessary danger, they also knew it was worth it to be on such a happy, wild, and crazy crew. Luffy was a naturally born leader despite what people might say about him. He loved the people he was in charge of and would 'stick by them through any trouble and pain' just to make them smile, and to admit that they too enjoyed living. He didn't like being alone. He was alive to have fun, to win, to fight, to survive, to build up friends, to make people smile, to sail all the seas, to become the Pirate King, and then just maybe he would be satisfied.

After leaving his old home-town Luffy had taken to sailing. It was one of the things that came naturally to him and he was actually good at. He couldn't swim, like the cursed pirate he was. He couldn't read very well either, and would often get some place-names wrong. In general he liked it far more when he was spoken to, or read to when the need arose. He never liked to actually read to himself when it came to the actual words on a white page, it reminded him of his grandfather, and how much he was always telling him he had to learn to be 'A Strong and Independent Marine', and how a Marine had to be smart and clever, and write detailed and brilliant reports. That had never sounded like fun to him as a kid. Luffy was more of a visual learner. He would watch his sniper, Usopp and copy the knots he tied until his were almost as good Usopp's sailor knots.

Now Luffy had always been the sort of man to appreciate art. Once the Strawhats had been shown all their Bounties by the Franky family, he had gathered them all up, after their escape from Waterseven, and stuck them to the dinning room wall of their new ship, the _Thousand Sunny. _Yes, Bounties definitely counted as art. They portrayed their journeys as a pirate crew and all their promises and achievements. However, he had to keep taking down Sniper King's poster, because Sniper King wasn't a part of his crew, but somehow it kept on miraculously appearing back on the wall alongside all of his crew. It was a mystery poster. And in the end Luffy left it up, because just maybe the hero from Sniper Island had somehow blessed the Strawhats with his ghost presence, and was now watching over them, that's what Usopp said anyway. For Sniper Island was place to be found in your heart.

And so, he left it up there to watch over them. There was also one that would somehow always look ruined and screwed up, and he would often find it ripped off the wall. That was Sanji's poster. He didn't know why. It was the coolest picture of them all. Like some cool-ass old pirate picture of old. He thought Sanji looked cooler and mean, and unlike everyone else's picture.

So, Admiring artwork was something Luffy liked doing. He liked to have pictures of things for him to look at, and not just boring writing. Yep, he would be the sort of person that would never dream to look for fanfiction to read, for extra and exciting stories, but he would be fine with the Manga, for a while at least. You see Luffy's attention span was slightly lacking in the focusing department. Unless it was about food of course, in which case he would be happy to give anything or anybody his undivided attention, but otherwise most words just bounced off him like a cannon ball would bounce off his rubbery body. It wasn't like he was doing it deliberately. It just happened.

He was a carefree, slightly dipsy, but a loving child, with not much going for him apart from his smile, his laugh, and his ability to make people believe in him and follow him into the fires of hell itself. And that, should be enough to show anyone who was undecided about how Luffy's pirate crew worked so well. It all boiled down to Trust. He trusted them. And in turn they too learned to trust one another and to rely on his bluntness and stability. He didn't change. Luffy never changed no matter what situation he was in or who he met. He didn't treat the wealthy man any different from the poorest man he might have met, and he always said what he thought. Luffy was an open book, and he never burned the pages of his story, but left it out on show for the whole world to see if they wished it.

Now, although you might not know this, but Luffy took the duty of Captain very seriously, and would secretly record in his own Captain's log book. Not with boring and crazy writing, NO! He drew pictures of the days events. Pictures of people or his crew doing weird things, Islands in lots of colour because he liked colour, and (because Nami didn't really draw in colour), and he would also draw what he had eaten that day. Yep, food was what drove the Captain to do some crazy stuff. It was his true love in life, apart from becoming the Perfectly Cool, new Pirate King. He would become the legendary Pirate King and use his money and gold to buy the best food from all over the world. He would sail the seas and eat everything he wants, visit everyplace he wants, and become friends with everyone he wants. That was his dream and he was living it. (I mean) is still living it.

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**(Back to the story)**

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When a log book was found in the guys room everyone was very much surprised. Not only because Luffy had actually hidden it, but also had been able to keep it a secret from the whole crew. The one to have had the pleasure of finding it had been none other than Nico Robin. For she knew if there would be any clues to indicate the starting point of the mystery that was Little Luffy, it would be found where he hid the food he stole from the kitchen. She didn't know the location of his secret stash room precisely but she had made a good estimated guess about its whereabouts and she was right. She had expected to find lots of crumbs and bits and pieces of scraps and leftovers that Luffy hadn't seen in his tucked away hiding space, but she had been pleasantly surprised by his book.

So, while everyone else was outside preparing to embark on an odious journey back to the shore she sat calmly in the men's sleeping quarters assessing the creativity of her Captain's handy work.

It really was quite priceless, with drawings of the crew and their enemies along with tiny scrawls of words like, Stupid Sange, MONSTER NAMIE, and Zoro be'n funny. It was needless to say that the pictures that accompanied these words were brilliant and amusing causing Robin to chuckle softly to herself. The fact that Luffy couldn't even spell his own crew-mates' names right also made the pictures seem funnier. It was as if the pictures had been drawn by a child. But then again he still acted like one right?

She flicked the book over and restarted from the back of the book to look at the latest drawings. Because just maybe she would find the clue she needed. The Pages themselves were a bit grubby as if he had attempted to paint on them, dry the paint with sand, and then closed the book straight away. It was an interesting experience. Robin made a mental note to never try to get Luffy to read any real book. It wouldn't be able to survive his abuse for long.

His pictures of the unknown forest-like Island were busy and messy, and their were five in all. The first one was an angry drawing of Nami barking out orders to everyone, the second was of Sanji kicking a tree and catching the fruit that fell from it (he had drawn a stretched out Sanji with three heads so he could catch all the fruits, so weird). His third was of an unusual bug that he and Chopper had found, the fourth was just a lot of water flowing down from some rocks to somewhere else, and the final one was a mountain of food.

Robin giggled at the drawings. "Well, they are all very cheerful." she said to herself. The mix of imagination and reality was really interesting. In fact the more she looked at the pictures the more she believed that Luffy liked to try and make his drawings as obvious and relative as possible. But, out of all the pages she found herself inquisitive about about the second to last one most. "I wonder."

She kept her finger in the page and stepped outside, and found Zoro dragging around some unnecessary baggage called Luffy.

"Zoro! I want to see. Show me! Show me!" Luffy whined up at the giant green haired man. Luffy had his arms around Zoro's leg and was holding on tightly to prevent being kicked off.

"NOT A CHANCE IN HELL!" Zoro retaliated, "I told you! You can't play with my swords!"

"But you've got three. I just want to play with one." Luffy twisted his legs around the swordsman's right one and gripped even tighter then and tried to reach for Wado Ichimonji, but Zoro was not having it.

"No Luffy! Get lost!" He tried to pull Luffy off, but their legs were all knotted together, so when the swordsman threw him he sprung back with a boing and temporally knocked Zoro off his feet. Zoro managed to untangle himself and slowly stood up holding onto Luffy's (Nami's) GOLD t-shirt/ vest. He was giving off his scary glare (the one that would give nightmares to little children), but Luffy just returned his glare with a glazed and bored look. Obviously still not quite convinced that Zoro was all as scary as he made himself out to be.

Zoro would change that. "Listen Luffy, and listen well. I don't try and take your hat off you, do I?"

Luffy shook his head.

"And I don't tell you what to do with it, or how to wear it, or demand to have it, or try to squash it when I'm angry!" Zoro's voice rose up a notch.

Luffy's eyes went wild and his arms reached over his head to protect his treasure.

"Well, if I don't try and steal your treasure then don't try and take mine. I won't put up with it." he let go of Luffy and watched him drop to the floor. "Beware around me Luffy, if you try to steal something of mine again," he paused and laid his hand upon the hilt of his white sheathed blade "... your toes and fingers will go missing in the night, and sometime the next day you will eat them from Sanji's cooking at Lunchtime."

Luffy screamed and ran away from Zoro and made faces at him somewhere out of reach.

"You certainly have a way with children." Robin said smiling, as she came up to Zoro.

"I'm not going to spoil Luffy just because everyone else thinks he's cute and worth it all of a sudden. He might be a child, but he's still Luffy. He's a pain, and he needs to be treated the same." Zoro leaned back against railing. "So when are we going to leave, I thought you two girls would have been ready by now."

"I was just doing some extra surveillance. Do you know where Nami is at the moment?" Robin asked.

"Nowhere nearby thankfully." He yawned, "No idea."

Robin turned and made her way to the dinning hall. She saw the immaculate kitchen and thought of the missing chef. "I wonder if Sanji is okay?" She said to no one in particular. He had left about an hour ago and hadn't returned to find them or to discuss anything. He had gone out blind and crazy. It was really very strange.

Robin eventually found Nami talking to Usopp about what they needed to bring to the Island. And so after excusing herself for interrupting them she showed them Luffy's unusual Log Book. Nami read through a few of them and then did the same thing Robin had done only a few minutes before.

"Haha!" Usopp exclaimed. "Is that supposed to be you? That's so lame!" He was cut off from saying much more as he was sent flying into the far wall.

"This looks interesting." Nami said pointing at the fourth page. "I don't remember seeing that."

"Nami!" Luffy charged into the room and crashed into them, breaking up their conversation and pulling on Nami's trouser leg pocket. He was demanding attention, again. "Nami? Come on! Let's go to the Island now!"

"Not yet Luffy." She pulled his hand out of her pocket, dropped it, and looked back up at Robin. "So, you don't remember this on the Island right." She looked back down at the terrible drawing of the waterfall.

"Well, no. I don't, but it could just be a picture from his imagination."

Luffy pulled the book down to get a look at what they were talking about. "Oh! I remember that! That water was yummy! It tasted like fruit and meat." the oblivious kid smiled at the memory.

Wait, Memory.

"Luffy?" Nami asked "You can actually remember this?"

"Yeah! It was nice. I wanted to go swimming, but I couldn't so I stuck my head in and drank lots of water until my tummy was out here." He stretched out his stomach with his hands to try and indicate how large it actually was.

Franky was doing something crazy that caught Luffy's attention and he sped away unaware how important his words had been.

Robin frowned and turned back to the Navigator, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Water that tastes sweet to the drinker, and that makes people young again, being drunk by the gallon." Nami nodded. "What else could it be?"

"Let's tell the others." Robin and Nami went outside and called the rest of the crew together.

"It is time to go, does anyone have any other ideas as to where Luffy went and what caused the change to happen?" Nami said.

Usopp spoke up. "I think!" he said with a serious undertone as Chopper looked on at him with starry eyes. "That Luffy has been put under a spell." He whipped up a spell book from somewhere and spoke in a loud voice. "Winato! Begone!" he waved his hand over Luffy's head, "Evil Spirit! Begone!" Luffy started picking his nose in confusion. "Diabolical Demon! Begone!" Luffy started giggling. He found this guy really funny.

"Did it not work this time?" Chopper asked.

"It must be an unknown demon." Usopp said with his worried voice. "I can not cleanse things that I do not understand."

"Yeah right." Zoro yawned. "He isn't possessed."

"Are you sure?" Brook asked. "I see no reason for him to have changed, unless he was put under some sort of enchantment. And if I could see that then you should, because I have no eyes."

"This is a SUPER surprise! But we need to change Luffy back otherwise we will not be the same Pirate crew. The Strawhat Pirates can't be without their Strawhat Captain." Franky added.

"Well, I did check to see if he has eaten anything poisonous, but the results were normal." Chopper said.

"So what does that leave us to go on that he drank some magical water." Zoro scoffed.

Robin smiled, "Yes, that is possible, but what if this just so happens to be the legendary Island of the Fountain of Youth?" Everyone stopped what they were doing and thinking about and focused on Robin. She continued, "This Island fits all descriptions that I have ever read about it. Wouldn't it be incredible if we have really found it. Or I should say Luffy found it, but there is still the matter of where it would be located."

Everyone stared in a shocked and stupefied astonishment at these words, and Robin took up the book and showed them the terrible picture that had started her speculation.

"It would make sense if this was indeed the Island." Robin carried on, "Luffy has not just become youthful but impossibly younger. And we don't know how much Luffy even drank, so the result for someone else could be entirely different." Robin frowned, and looked over to her tiny, confused looking Captain. "But, if it really is the fountain of youth, I have no idea about how to change back such an amazing phenomena. The Fountain has always been legend it has never been proven only speculated."

"So, basically we still need to do the same thing?" Zoro spoke up. "Find it. Get Chopper to run some weird tests on it, make sure Luffy gets back to normal, and leave." he clicked and cracked his neck moving it from side to side preparing for a new adventure in the jungle-like Island, and looked up at the Strawhat organizer. "So, Nami. You finished here or what?"

"Yes, we're finished here."

"Whatcha gonna name this Island?" Usopp asked.

"Well," Nami allowed a evil grin to spread across her pleasant face. "That still is undecided, but I do think the name of our crew might change, the 'Eternally Young Strawhat Pirates' has a good ring to it." She ran her finger around the log post on her wrist, and grinned at her friends. "I think it time to find out. Get ashore everyone! And make it snappy."

"Yeah!" Luffy jumped up into the air and starting running round in circles. He didn't really understand what had just been said, but they were about to go exploring and he couldn't contain his excitement. "Yeah! Yeah! YEAHHHHHH! Yeah! Yeah! YEAHHHHHHH!"

It wasn't long before Franky had picked him up and took him downstairs to the _Miny Merry. _And so the Strawhats' made their way to the Island. They weren't quite sure what they would find out there, but they would be sure to solve the mystery.

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**Thankyou Chapter 2 reviewers. I hope you continue to enjoy the story.**

**Fi Suki Saki**

**Concerned Guest**

**Guest**

**Shannon Summer**

**ScatteredPhilosopher**

**Toreh**

**pipi96**

**Amy**

**Xxferssa- TanXx**


	4. Don't Get Lost

**Thank you everyone who has been enjoying the story so far. I do not own One Piece, but I love making up stories for it. **

**My favourite character in One Piece is Luffy; just in case you didn't know. And my second favourite character is Nami. Followed very closely by Tashigi. I know what a lot of you are thinking, (W.O.E) but I really like the character of Tashigi, and her history is still a total mystery. And she looks like Zoro's rival / friend. So Cool! I can't wait to actually find out more about her. And my fourth favourite is Zoro, because he is just so... hot? no... handsome, awesome, manly, cool, hopelessly lost and … wait I can do better...**

**Hopelessly Handsome**

**Ruggedly Rough**

**Casually Cool**

**Monstrously Manly**

**Absolutely Awesome**

**Stupidly Scoundrelous **

**Likely Losable **

**and so this is our … **

**Super Sleepy Swordsman **

**Who Sails the Seas**

**He can do as he please**

**And does it with ease**

**Slightly Stupid,**

**Scarily Strong,**

**He's often right**

**Hardly ever wrong. **

**He stacks up losers **

**By the pile**

**He's been fighting long**

**Yeah, for a while.**

**Yep, we all know**

**He gets lost within that mile, **

**But who cares 'cause Zoro uses **

**Three Sword Style**

**:D**

**by Abigail Skywalker**

**Okay, so maybe I'm not really sure which guy is my number one favourite, but they are both awesome in their own unique way. So I can't quite decide.**

**.**

**.**

Luffy, Always Bounces Back: Don't Get Lost

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Chapter 4:

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The Island wasn't large, and it wasn't to wild and filed with crazy people or animals, but it did have something that was very hindrance to their mission. It was incredibly over-grown and filled with thousands of good produce and things to eat. It has, in the One Piece World, been established that Luffy will eat almost anything and could catapult himself anywhere. And so, having been given the odious task of finding where this fountain of Youth could have possible been, wound be a mission in itself. It was one fit for the phrase 'Easier to find a needle in a haystack'.

They were currently in the swell of a large wooded area with a leafy floor. It smelt musty as if the sun hardly ever reached the earth below, but the woodland smell was rich and invigorating.

Luffy smiled, and took in a deep breath. This reminded him of the Forest near Dadan's house. He just couldn't wait to go exploring. He was running around the group with excitement. They had almost become used to his crazy childish energy by now and tried to ignore him most of the time because he was just to much.

Once the crew had gathered together Nami had divided everyone into groups. The First group were Brook, Franky, and Usopp, the second group was Robin, and Zoro, and the last group was Nami, Chopper, and Luffy.

"Why do you get to decide who goes into each team?" Zoro demanded. "I work better on my own."

"Shut up! I know what I'm doing. That might be true, but I want to put people into teams where at least one person can read a map, and know which way is North, South, East, and West." Nami retauted.

Usopp smirked at Zoro picturing him being lost of hours on this small Island, "I'm with Nami on this one. I'm fine with this set up." of course Usopp was fine. Brook could chop up anything in his way, and Franky might be able to dig into the island if he wanted. He had nothing to worry about.

"Imagine what would have happened if we weren't with Zoro at Punk Hazard." Brook added. "Yohohoho! He might have gotten lost in the gas."

"That would have been unfortunate." Robin said into the conversation. She was just putting her bag over her shoulders, making sure the fresh and very rough map that Nami made for her was secured in her bag. "I wonder what Zoro would look like as a petrified statue." she thought aloud.

"Shut up you morons! Are we going or not?" Zoro didn't like this idiotic discussion.

"Well," Usopp said. "he would look just the same as he did as a Baroque Works' Wax Statue on that Giangantic Island... what was it called?"

"It was Little Garden." Nami said, folding her arms. "and don't forget I was almost frozen as a statue as well. It was a terrible experience."

"Oh, so that's when you met MR. 3" Robin smiled, "I did wonder what you all did there." she sighed, "I wish I had been there to see. That sounds like you had fun."

"FUN! SHUT UP ROBIN!" Usopp sounded traumatized. "Have you ever watched your friends being frozen wax solid infront of you before? It's not funny!"

"Frozen Wax Solid! That sounds scary!" Chopper hid behind Robin's leg.

"Yes, it was for them, but luckily..." Usopp paused and cupped his chin with his right hand. "I was free and distracting the enemy. While Zoro, Nami, Luffy, and Princess Vivi where captured I alone fought off the enemy and pulled them all out of certain doom."

"No you didn't Usopp. Luffy did." Zoro gave away with a bored expression.

"Yeah, well I helped more than you did!" Usopp yelled. "You were just standing there like a candle on a cake!"

"And Usopp wasn't the idiot who tried to cut his feet off." Nami said.

"What you tried to cut them off? Is that when you got the scars on your feet?" Chopper yelled concerned, "Baka! They still don't look good."

"I can just see it now," Brook muttered to himself, "Red with White wax, like strawberry cake with cream..."

"No! It was nothing like that! It was disgusting!" Nami exclaimed.

"Well, I would still have liked to see Mr. 3's artwork. It's sounds beautiful." Robin said.

"It was a joke of a devil fruit power. Really stupid." Zoro said.

"... Strawberry cake with tea would be nice." Brook carried on.

"Well, as a matter of fact the creeps from Baroque Works were drinking tea." Usopp said.

"Where was Sanji?" Franky interupted. "Didn't he try and free you guys. I can't imagine him letting two girls get frozen stiff with Zoro."

"He was making friends with Crocodile over the Snail phone and pretending that he was Mr. 3." Nami explained.

"Wow, Sanji's so clever." Chopper said cheerfully.

"Well, look who's lost now. The Clever Cook is lost." Zoro smirked as he looked around for the idiot cook. "See, nowhere in sight." his smile soon left his face though when he realized that someone else was missing too.

"Hey guys? Where's Luffy?"

They all looked around.

"No way!" Nami fell down to the ground at her feet. "I have my back turned for just a few moments and he goes missing." she started hitting the earth. "It's not fair. What did I do to deserve this? Why is Luffy such an idiot? Why! Why!"

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They had all been talking for a long time now, and Luffy had since long decided that he was bored of this game. And what was worse is that no one had thought to tell him what they were even looking for. And what they were saying made no sense to him.

He knew something was out there and he could smell things that were interesting. These trees were bigger and weirder than the ones he, Ace, and Sabo, lived in.

"Food! I'm coming food!" He yelled and charged off to the biggest tree, and started climbing it.

About nine minutes later he had reached the top and had eaten a lot of fruit and weird mushroom stuff on the way.

"So good." he patted his full stomach and then found a spot in the tree to snuggle into. The sun was warm and shining down on him. There was a fresh breeze that kept whipping through the trees and he was high enough to be overlooking them all. He just felt so relaxed, so peaceful, as if the trees were singing a lullaby to him.

"Sleep now," he mumbled, "go exploring later." he rolled over and lay face down on the branch of the tree. He wrapped his arms and legs securely round the branch to stop himself from sliding and when he was finished, let out a sigh of contentment. And so, Luffy fell asleep to the rocking of the tree and the whispers on the winds.

But alas, no one knew where he was and no one knew what was really out there. Was what they were looking for really the fountain of youth or was it a clever and devious enemy?

As the sun started to set, and the shadows started to grow the tree Luffy was on had another eager visitor climbing the trunk. When he got to the top he noticed Luffy, shook his head, and then picked him up. "You shouldn't have run away from me, my Little King of the Pirates." he whispered to the sleeping child. "You promised me remember..." The stranger took the hat off the sleeping child, and put it on his own head. "we will always be together forever." Luffy stirred a little in his sleep, but then relaxed into the strangers arms.

"I'm going to be the King of the Pirates." Luffy muttered in his sleep.

"Of course we will. Of course we will." the stranger repeated.

He made his way down the tree and out of sight into the night. And Luffy made no sound. He was still fast asleep, and having pleasant dreams. The kind of dreams that you just don't remember.

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**Isn't this exciting! I think it is. What could happen next?!**

**By the way check out my other stories as well. :D**

**Don't forget to review... **


	5. Retracing Luffy's Steps

**Next Chapter here I come**

**Sorry for leaving you guys on a cliff hanger like that, but I do like interesting stories. We can't have it too predictable now can we?**

**Who could this stranger possibly be... ?**

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Luffy, Always Bounces Back: Retracing Luffy's Steps

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Chapter 5:

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The Crew of the Strawhat Pirates had split up into their respectable teams, and searched franticly for their careless Captain. Nami and Chopper were able to track him for a while, but the overwhelming earthy smells around Chopper soon confused his sense of smell and he lost Luffy's scent. In the other two man team, Zoro kept on insisting to Robin that Luffy liked travelling to the highest location or the strangest spot, and that they should head straight to the highest point of the island. Robin however was quite clear that they needed to find the Fountain of Youth's source and was searching in the caves near the shore because she believed it might be well hidden there, and she got Zoro to move boulders that were blocking her way.

Meanwhile, in the only three man team, they had set up a camp fire, cooked something amazing, and gone to sleep early. Their plan had been for Luffy to smell the food and then for them to not have to do any work at all. But unfortunately Luffy did not turn up as they planned so the next morning they had set off to hunt for Luffy. Franky had been able to fit together a bike like construction from what he had found lying around. And now they were travelling 'as fast as the wind' as Usopp liked to call it.

"Yohohoho! I just love the feeling of the wind whipping through my hair! It makes me feel young again." Brook announced to the others.

"Just wait til Luffy sees this!" Franky said grinning. "We'll find him first. 'Cause we have a SUPER ride!"

"Are you sure Franky?" Brook interjected, "I think our green haired Swordsman stands a good chance as well." Brook was waving his cane carelessly back and forth, Usopp thought that he might get it caught on a passing tree at any moment and disappear from their view.

"No, he has no chance against us." Franky leaned back into his bike and allowed the devil-like grin to spread across his face. "BECAUSE WE R THE SUPER TEAM!"

Usopp approved of this and nodded, "In the words of Zoro the sleepy and wise...!" Usopp started with his serious face and then proceeded to do one of his Zoro impersonations. "We'll find him, because that's what real men do.' zzzzz...zzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzz..." Usopp leaned back on Brook and pretended to be sleeping hugging three swords to his chest.

"That's just like him!" Franky laughed, looking behind him while riding his bike.

"Yohohohoho! That was so funny it made my eyes cry, even though..."

"Do Sanji next!" Franky interrupted.

"I will discover Luffy's mystery!" he got out his imaginary fag and puffed from it. "Because this is a test of my love!"

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" Franky laughed at Usopp's impressions. "Best I've seen so far!"

"Yohohoho! Oh," Brook interrupted himself, "there's something in the way."

"Something in the way?" Franky looked back to the make shift road, but too late there was a BUM! .. BUM! Franky skidded to a stop, but not soon enough. Soon a strawhat flew up into the air and landed on Brook.

"Did we just run over Luffy?" Usopp said looking nervous.

"Nooooooo!" Brook jumped from the bike to run back.

"It doesn't really matter if we did right? He's just made of rubber. He'll just bounce back into shape. It's fine!" Franky said trying to sound relaxed. He sure was glad Nami wasn't here.

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Now, the reader might have by this point gotten extremely worried about a certain love-sick cook, or they like Zoro wouldn't care or bat an eyelid if he didn't appear in the story anymore 'til the very end. But unfortunately my dear reader he will, but not as you expected.

Unaware of the bright cheerful sunshine away above the trees, somewhere in the jungle a young lad woke up from a small nap he had taken by a river. He stood up and shook his head. _Wondering why he had slept by a river of all places._

"Where am I?" he looked down at what he was wearing, "I don't remember ever owning a suit like this?" He called out "Hey! You old Geezers! Zeff! Where are you guys?!" he started muttering to himself as he fished for a light and fag, "Those idiots had better not be playing a prank on me." he took another deep breath and yelled, "Oi Zeff! Where are you?"

Then out of nowhere he heard a cry. Not a angry, painful, or a heartbroken cry. It was the cry that someone gives off when they are lost and afraid. He hurried to the sound worried about whoever was lost out here, even though he had no idea of where he was himself. He hurried through the thick underbrush and smashed through netted vines, and soon found himself in an enclosed, earthy, and dirty knotted up area. And it was from here that he could see the source of the noise of the crying.

There was a tiny child that had been abandoned right in the middle of the forest. Sanji instantly kicked away some of the dead branches around the child. He couldn't just leave him out here.

"Hey there kid." Sanji said as he approached.

The child looked up at him as he came nearer. Sanji could see his tear stained face clearer now. "It's okay kid. I'll find your parents for you. You don't need to be afraid."

"Something's wrong with me?" the kid said sniffing.

"No there isn't. It will be alright. There is nothing to be afraid of."

"That's not right." he was shaking his head as Sanji pulled him upright. "I feel as if I should be afraid of something. But I don't remember. I don't remember." Sanji dusted off dirt from the grubby kid.

"Do you know what this place is called at least?"

"No, I don't remember. I feel stolen from."

"What? That doesn't make any sense."

"I need to know something, but I can't remember what I need to know."

"What's your name?"

"I don't know."

"What're your parents names?"

"I can't remember." The child put his head in his hands and wept. It was as if something had sapped all the love and joy out of this child's life and made him a hollow shell.

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Brook was the first to arrive at the scene and it was indeed Luffy that had been run over. He had been sleeping in the middle of the road. Luffy's squashed face sprung back upwards and as if in afterthought he stood up. He then caught sight of them and grinned. "Hi Brook!" He yelled as he embraced the skeleton. His grin got even wider when he caught sight of the others.

"I'm sure glad to see you guys again!" he laughed, "It feels so long, you all got lost didn't you!"

"Luffy? Are you sure you're alright?" said Franky, he was frowning.

"Yep, I'm fine!"

"But you were tiny, and now you're back to normal. How did you do that?" Usopp continued to look worried.

"What are you talking about Usopp? I haven't used Gear 3."

"I'm not talking about Gear 3 I'm talking about the time when you changed back into a child." Usopp added.

"Huh? I didn't do that?" Luffy looked very confused, and scratched his head. "I Don't know. It's a mystery."

"But..."

"I just went to sleep and woke up again, and I am like this. And I can't remember anything else." He chuckled to himself, "Usopp you must be going crazy."

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**I wonder who can figure out the mystery first. **


	6. The Spring of Life

**I see a lot of you are confused. That's good. That is what I was intending to make happen. Hehehehehehehe! (evil laugh), but do not fear the truth shall be revealed soon.**

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Luffy, Always Bounces Back: The Spring of Life.

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Chapter 6:

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There was a great swordsman that was feared by many the world over, but somehow was still made to feel insignificant in certain areas when he was with the rest of the Strawhat Crew. Zoro was just left by Robin sitting by the entrance of the new cave he had opened up. His job he had been told by her was to prevent anyone suspicious from entering the cave.

"Stupid Luffy." Zoro muttered to himself. "You just had to go and get yourself lost." he rolled his eyes back into his head as he leaned back against the wall of the cave opening and closed his eyes he was so damn bored of all this searching. All he had to do to find Luffy was to go to the centre of the Island. The easiest way would be if he climbed up on of those cliff faces. He knew he shouldn't, and Nami would try to kill him if she knew he had tried, but he had been patient for like... an entire day with Robin and nothing had happened. He frowned. Yes, it was time to do things his way.

He knelt down at the base of the cave and wrote in the sand there. 'GONE DOWN TO THE RIGHT. ZORO.' he then stepped over his handy work and looked back at the cave. Yep, she would be able to see that easily.

He smiled to himself, "See Nami, even I can leave simple directions. All I need to do is keep to the right." And he turned right.

It wasn't long before Robin cam out of the cave and saw the message that had been left for her, but only a few steps away from the letters were Zoro's footprints facing the cave before he vied off to his right.

"Oh, dear." Robin smiled, "It's a good job there's a lot of sand here." she said to herself as she set off in search of her head strong team-mate.

.

.

Zoro felt very proud of himself after climbing such a mountainous cliff face in such a short period of time. He was absolutely sure he was on the right track he just had a gut feeling that this was the right way.

_What would his Captain have done if he had come up here? Well he would have grabbed a piece of fruit from that nearby tree._

Zoro jumped up into the air and sliced off part of a branch from the nearby tree. And ate the fruit without hesitation. 'that's what his captain would have done.'

"Hum …tas...fse ... go..od." he spoke with his mouth full, to himself in pleasant surprise.

_Next his Captain would have either sprung into action and moved on or he have grabbed more food and sat down to eat it._

He looked around for a seat that His Captain might feel inclined to use. _There! Right there was perfect._ He made his way to a rock that was just jutting out of the ground like a sore thumb, and finished his piece of fruit why just sitting there.

_Where would Luffy had gone to next? He would have leapt into or onto the next thing that caught his interest._

He looked around, but that was when he began to hear the subtle changes in the sounds of water around him. There was the loud roaring sea that was rolling back and forth against the rocks of this island and then there was a gentle splashing noise coming from somewhere else.

He turned around and looked behind him. Just on the other side of the rock he was sitting on was a gaping hole that descended into the cliff.

"Luffy would definitely find this interesting." he dangled his legs over the edge and allowed himself to fall into the pit.

He landed with a thud and was surprised by the large amounts of glowing worm-like things on the sides of the cave. He shrugged it off as unimportant information and walked down the echoing passages

He came into a ginormous chamber that seemed to happy to offer the perfect echo to his boots as they hit the floor. "Oi Luffy are you here?" Zoro called out to him. No answer.

Then he smelt something familiar. What? Had someone got a secret stash of booze here or something? He began walking around the lake of water in search of the source of this familiar smell. He could do with a little break, he had been working solidly 'til now, and it had been a little while since the Strawhats had got him any new sake. He had circled half of the perimeter of the so called lake, but had seen no sign of the booze or Luffy.

"Damn it. Where is this smell coming from?" he muttered to himself. He then found himself turning back to the lake. It could be there? Could it? There was no such thing as a lake of alcohol. But his misgivings weren't enough to prevent him from testing out his theory.

He knelt down at the edge of the lake, cupped his hands and pulled out the water and drank it. Delight flooded out his suspicion as the taste was just too amazing to be imagination. It was really an entire lake of sweet alcohol.

"This should be called the fountain of booze." he cheered up as he drank another mouth-full.

It soon wasn't enough to drink with his hands alone and he dipped his entire face in. It had felt and tasted so sweet to him, he had never been offered a chance like this before, he had never seen a miny sea of alcohol he could swim in and for some reason he felt like he really wanted to.

He took off his clothes and dived into it's depths. He would be really sticky afterwards, but he didn't care at least he would have the memory of being able to do this this one time. He ducked his head under starting to feel a little giddy at the amazing effect it was having on him. He swam and drink and swam and drank. This was going to be the closest feeling he would get to being kissed by the sea as some men call it when they love it more than home. He kept the shore in sight and made his way back to it before he became a little to intoxicated. As he came up to the side and climbed up onto dry land he suddenly felt very drowsy and tired. He pulled his pants back on before he lay down on the edge of the heavenly lake and allowed himself to drift off into a drug induced sleep. _He felt calm, and at peace, and so..._

His mind blanked out as he fell into a deep sleep. Which wasn't very hard, because as you all know Zoro has sleeping down to an art. No one can beat him at a sleeping contest. He wins hands down.

However as he was sleeping the water that had just been drunk by him started seeping out from the pours of his skin dribbling away back into the lake of sake. Before long a mysterious man had appeared before Zoro standing straight and tall.

"I shall try to the best of my ability to achive your goals." he said to him. "May you rest in peace here until the time comes for you to rise again." And with that he picked up Zoro's weapons and left through the entrance that Zoro had just hours before come in through.

.

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**Don't panic. Just wait for the unavoidable. **


	7. Robin to the Rescue

**I can't believe, that I have 40+ reviews. Thanks so much guys! I have never gotten so many before! EVER! It's so exciting! My only other stories that come a little closer are 'Tashigi's Heart' and 'Starlight Stalker'. **

**You might not believe this but my favourite fanfiction so far is Tashigi's Heart. :D But I am really enjoying writing this one. **

**Please let me know who your favourite character is, and give me a scenario to put them into, and who knows it might just come up in the next chapter. :D**

**.**

**.**

Luffy, Always Bounces Back: Robin to the rescue.

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Chapter 7:

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.

Nico Robin had been accused of many things, but among the top of all the insults she had received was being called 'a heartless demon' that seemed to be the favourite. However all her friends new the truth. There were times when she would say something sarcastic and uncaring, but that only hid the pain and worry that she had grown up with all the years of her life. They would all act shocked, but then would let it slide. She was Robin, that was all they needed to know. She was their friend and crew-mate.

After having come out from the cave Robin had started looking for Zoro before he got himself too lost. And as always she found tracking the large-footed individual rather easy. The heavy well-built man left a very obvious trail.

Quite a few hours later Robin found her way into the cave and marvelled at it's beauty. After wandering about the pools edges she came across the bundles of green cloth that she recognized all to well. "Zoro?" she bent down and lifted up the top section that was covering his face.

"Well," she paused as she gazed upon the unusual sight before her. "you most certainly did find the fountain of youth." she pulled off the coat-like clothing that Zoro used to cover himself with, his haramaki seemed to have been used as a cushion. She knelt down beside him, but once she had put a hand on his skin she found him as cold as ice.

"I hope he isn't dead." She said to herself and bent over his chest to hear for a heartbeat. "Very faint." she shook her head.

_I wonder where his swords are?_

"Wake up sleeping beauty." Robin said, she felt the strongest urge to poke his nose and she did until he woke up._ He's such a little cutey when he __wa__s little._

.

Zoro thought he could taste something weird in his mouth and tried swallowing it, but his mouth was dry and his head seemed to ache. He opened his eyes lazily at first, but then was very much suddenly awake. A grown up lady he had never met was staring at him. He shot up into a sitting position and glared at the person who was watching him sleep.

"Who are you old lady?" Zoro's serious dark eyes bore up at Robin keeping his expression of seriousness on his face as he examined her. She was a pretty lady, but there was something in her smile that he really didn't like. _Why __i__s she smiling at __me__ like that? She d__oes__n't know __me__._

_'Creepy old lady. Where did she come from and where am I?'_ At the moment he looked away to take in his surroundings Robin embraced him in a huge inescapable hug.

"You look so cute." Robin said, patting the top of his green head and smiling at the stupidly shocked expression he was giving her.

"Let go of me you creep!" Zoro yelled having been startled.

"Don't worry Zoro I'm not going to hurt you." The creepy smile came onto her face again and Zoro freaked,_ 'How did she know his name?_' and tried even harder to get away. "Look here you go." She let go of him and crossed her arms. Just as Zoro was about to ask who she was again and why she was here, an arm came out of the ground and picked up his haramaki and handed it to him. Zoro went deathly white.

"Witch!" Zoro yelled as he grabbed a hold of his clothes and made a break away. This failed tremendously as he tripped over his own far too long trousers.

_Why am I wearing all these big things? Where's Kushiro and the dojo? Where is Kuina?_

"Zoro let me help you..."

"No!" Zoro yelled as he very quickly and badly put on his clothes facing her, while watching her every move.

"You don't need to be afraid of me, I'm your friend."

"I don't have any friends!" Zoro growled back.

She held out her own hand to him. Her eyes were a beautiful blue that made him feel calm, but something about her just made him feel nervous. "If you come back with me I'll let you have three bottles of Sake."

He frowned. Was she stupid? He couldn't drink Sake he wasn't... as she smiled down at him he noticed three hands coming back out of the ground and waving at him.

"AAHHHHHH!" he hit her hand away, "I don't care if you act nice or not! I'm not going to be tricked and eaten by a witch!" He jumped over her arms and ran with his oversized clothes as fast as he could toward the door.

That had to be right. How else could he have ended up in this position. She was a witch, and had spirited him away to this place to test him. He had to get back. He had to go.

.

"Oh dear." Robin rubbed the side of her temple. "Maybe that wasn't the best way to convince him." Zoro had been the most against her joining up with the crew after all. "Such a suspicious character." she muttered after Zoro.

She sighed and made her way to the lake where she gathered up some of the water in a drinking container. "The doctor will want to see and experiment with this. I wonder how it works." She packed up her stuff and made herself ready to follow her now much shorter companion.

"I hope he doesn't get lost."

.

.

Zoro ran as fast and as hard as he could until he was well away from the cave, and from the witch until he saw a tall person in the distance.

"Hey! Old man! A witch is after me! Help I need to find my way back home!" Zoro yelled to the cloaked man he seemed to be carrying a few swords with him, that was good, he could probably direct him back to the dojo. The striding man stopped and waited for Zoro to catch up with him. But as Zoro got closer and closer he could see that one of the swords he was carrying was one he had only just witnessed defeating him the night before.

"Oi!" Zoro ran toward the old man. "Oi, Old man. Did you know you're carrying my friend's sword? Give it back to me now! She wouldn't want an old weirdo like you to have it."

"I would have thought you'd be sleeping a bit longer than that." The hooded stranger muttered.

"I don't sleep in the day! That's stupid! Now give me Kuina's sword! It's not yours."

"I will if you can tell me it's name." the old guy smirked down at him, as if he knew a secret. Zoro frowned. '_He looks like dad.'_ Zoro's mind went blank for a few seconds. Name? Does the blade have a name? …. "Um, it's name is … 'Kuina's Sword'."

"Nope," The 'old man' bent down and picked up Zoro by the scruff of his very baggy clothes and swung him over his shoulder carrying him to the edge of the forest. "I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice."

"OI!" Zoro yelled, kicking and screaming. "Let me go! Right now damn it!" Zoro to his relief was getting freed slowly by all his movement because the clothes he had been wearing beforehand were so baggy.

Unfortunately, the other guy noticed it too. "This won't do." He pulled Zoro off his back and threw him to the ground. Zoro lay there for a few seconds temporarily winded, and whizzing, but wasn't able to catch his breath before the nasty old man had leaned over him and tied him up.

"What are you doing!?" Zoro asked angrily, but had started to get a little scared. He couldn't fight this guy he was too strong.

"I'm just making sure you don't get hurt." the man had wrapped the green kimono tightly around Zoro's body, and then twisted the sleeves tightly around Zoro's arms, folded them over one another on his chest and then tide the sleeve ends around his back. Zoro fought back the entire time, but soon couldn't move. He reverted to screaming.

"SET ME FREE YOU BASTARD! LET ME GO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" His screams seemed to have no effect on the man. As the old man started to rip the hem of the green piece of clothing away.

Zoro still had his legs free, but he didn't have the balance and the freedom to move he tried it anyway and fell over.

"Don't hurt yourself you fool." the stranger came toward Zoro with the two freshly ripped pieces of cloth.

"DON'T GIVE ME THAT CRAP! SET ME FREE!"

The man bent of Zoro's tiny form and shoved the first ripped piece of cloth into his mouth, Zoro could do nothing to prevent it. He then tied the other across his mouth and knotted it at the back of his head. He had tied it very tight and if Zoro's mouth had been uncovered he might have let out a groan of pain and discomfort.

_'What am I going to do? There is no one around. How can I get away?' _

"Excuse me Swordsman, but that child belongs with me, and I don't like seeing children being beaten." The woman he had seen before was coming up behind them the look in her eyes had changed.

_'Great he was going to get saved by the witch.' _The man that had just tied him up threw him over his shoulder like a sack of grain and drew out Kuina's sword.

Zoro's eyes went wild when he saw arms flying up out of the ground everywhere. He wasn't quite sure which one he wanted to win. The witch or the old man.

"I know your weaknesses Nico Robin." The man charged at her, but from Zoro's perspective he couldn't really tell what was going on at all. Except for the fact the man had a lot of strange attacks, there were lots of hands, and they both started to create holes in the ground. Until he felt himself being thrown from the tall man's body. He waited for the hard impact of the ground, but was shocked when he noticed how far he had been thrown.

Zoro would have screamed if his mouth had not been covered as he noticed there was no ground beneath him as he fell.

Zoro saw his life flash before his eyes as he was hurled over the cliff, but then arms came out of the rocks and grabbed a hold of him. He was momentarily relieved, but at the same time became extremely anxious. 'What would the witch do with him?'

He was left hanging there for a few moments and then the hands holding him in place started extending themselves making a longer chain of hands as he slowly descended the cliff.

The witch lady was there waiting for him at the bottom and caught him as her fake hands disappeared. "Are you alright Zoro?" she embraced him as she leaned over his small form. "We have to stick together, there is something far larger and more terrifying than we could have imagined at work here." She untied his covered mouth and smiled down him. "You're safe with me."

Zoro still found it hard to believe that this woman was safe to be around, but she didn't seem to want to hurt him, yet.

"Um, Lady?" Zoro spoke, but didn't look into her face.

"Yes."

"Who are you? And where are we? And how do you know my name?" Zoro was determined not to be taken in my the strange lady again and her pretty eyes. He still didn't trust her, but he needed to get her to untie him first so he could escape. "I need to get back home." he said as he initiated eye contact. He winced, her witch's eyes were to powerful he should have know better. The sharp blue pieced into his soul.

"My name is Nico Robin." she smiled causing her blue eyes to flash with cheerfulness.

"I..." Zoro didn't know what to say he had never met a lady like this before. "I... I promised Kuina that I'd become the world's strongest swordsman." _Blue eyes, Blue eyes_. "So I can't be eaten by a witch here. Please let me go." The sound of laughter came to his ears and he found himself being embraced by the woman again.

"You look so cute when you're embarrassed." she sat down and pulled him across her lap so that he was facing skywards. "Let me see how much do you need to know?" she thought about it for a little while and then started.

"Okay, Once upon a time there was..."

_'What have I gotten myself into?'_ Zoro sighed as he lay on the lady's lap. He was still tied up so he couldn't move anywhere. He would just have to take it and listen to her story. He scowled as he listened to her story.

_But, She really does have nice eyes._

_._

_._

**I hope you liked that chapter. Don't forget to review. :D**


	8. The Wandering Swordsman

**I don't own One Piece.**

**Long time no see guys. :P**

**Whooops, that is what happens when you start working I suppose. To many hours in the day wasting your brain power to talking to people who don't want to listen to you is depressing. Oh! How I love writing. I miss you Fanfiction. I love you Zoro. I love you Luffy. I am finally home! Away from strange people! Home with my laptop. **

**:D I'm happy.**

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Luffy, Always Bounces Back: The Wandering Swordsman.

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Chapter 8:

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Through the overgrown wood lands and over cascading waterfalls a wandering man strides with purpose. He seemed to take get delight in cutting things aside that were in his way just so that he could walk through a space untouched by the gianorous plants and undergrowth around him. He was strong and muscular looking and appeared to the untrained eye to be in a hurry to go somewhere important.

He cut his way into another clearing in the forest only to find that the subject of his intentions was no where to be found. He looked around briefly and saw nothing of interest and so he made a seat of the nearby tree.

"UH! I could have sworn I have seen this place before." He scowled at the hole he had made in the undergrowth in order to get into the open grassy place. He growled menacingly in the back of his throat. "Where would she have gone I wonder? She must have gotten herself lost."

He looked at his left hand infront of him and then at his right. "I have to find the rest of the crew before that woman does." He swung his fist into a nearby tree and frowned in concentration.

"If only she hadn't seen me." He let out a deep sigh of frustration. His keen green eyes focused on sudden movement through the trees and instantly froze on the spot, poised, waiting to see if he was required to strike down what might be his future prey. The distant movement started again, but was revealed to be nothing more than a large bird burrowing in the ground for food. He ran his hands through his thick but quite short hair, worry etching itself into his face. His left hand rested back on the blades at his side and he took in another deep breath.

Having enough of the silence and quiet he darted back out into the jungle forest infront of him. He needed to find the others as quickly as possible.

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Luffy ran to the top of the next cliff, the others climbing up after him hoping to find or at least spot some of the others. And low and behold the team of four found a glorious sight, the sound of water that they had been hearing from miles away finally revealed itself. It was a glorious, massive waterfall of glistening droplets catching the golden light of the sun and flicking it in every direction. And these pirates had come to the very top of the waterfall.

Luffy fell forward onto the wet grass at the top of a waterfall. His head he allowed to stretch over the edge dropping down meters until he finally reached the waterfall's basin itself. He grinned to himself at his own unique and cool idea and dropped his head straight in. Soon he was gulping up water through his rubber neck like a hose pipe, and then all of a sudden he resprung back into shape again splurting out the water from his mouth into the faces of his crew members as they sat appreciating the view.

"Luffy!" Usopp got out his weapon and poised to fire something dangerous at Luffy.

"It would seem Usopp has a bone to pick with you." Brook said apprently unaffected by the feeling of water dripping through his bones.

"YOW!" Franky pointed back out to the forest in the north. "What is causing all that commotion?"

Before long an unexpected guest crash landed into their midst. "Zoro!" Usopp announced. "Where have you been? We found Luffy by the way, and he went back to his original form all by himself."

"Oibubu! Zooolllo!" Luffy gargled with his mouth full of fruit again. "Wheeb yuoou beeem?"

Zoro seemed to breath a sigh of relief. "I came here to warn everyone. That small version of Luffy wasn't Luffy at all. This Island sort of creates miniature copies of yourselves and tries to deceive you into believing that the copy is the real person simply became smaller." Zoro sat down looking a little shaken. "I just saw a small version of me right now leading Robin away somewhere, but when I followed them they disappeared somehow."

Brook stood up and pulled out his guitar.

"There are monsters out there.

That gnaw on your bones

They want you to stare

and to walk all alone.

So we'll whistle away

and eat all the bait

we'll be away by today

but NOOOO! it's too late!"

"AHHHHHH!" Brook ended.

At Brook's jolly song of misery and fear Usopp broke down into sobs of worry. "Ghosts are taking over! Where are they!? Even Zoro's scared of them!"

"I never said I was scared of them, but I am worried about Robin. She might have been convinced by the smaller me already that he is actually me."

Luffy interrupted him. "Don't worry Zoro. We all know that even if they are smaller than us, we can still beat them. We have years and years of practice in fighting over them. You can easily beat up your younger self right?" Luffy tilted his hat slightly looking over at Zoro with a cocky smile. "You had better just leave Robin for now she can look after herself. If she is hiding from you it will be easier to see her in the daytime tomorrow." He tilted his hat right back looking up into the sky. The sun was getting lower in the sky, and reading itself for another day's rest. Franky yawned and moved away from the group to gather wood. All of a sudden there came a thunderous noise from the forest below.

"LUFFY!" yelled two more newcomers to the group. They fell through the trees and ran up to where everyone else was sitting. Chopper bounded into Luffy arms crying his eyes out. "I was so worried about you, you stupid fool." Chopper cried.

"Luffy!" Nami smacked him round the head. "Where have you been? I've been worried sick over your stupid ass."

"Sorry. I was asleep." Luffy held Chopper away from him shielding him from the possible ricochets from their navigators punches.

"That is no excuse!" Nami continued to yell.

"Well..." Usopp tried to cut in but was hushed instantly by the furious Navigator.

"Where have you been?" Nami repeated.

"I said I was just asleep." Luffy insisted.

"Oi!" Franky interrupted the fight rolling toward the two in one of his new weird forms carrying an awesome supply of wood. Nami stepped aside. "Oi Nami, Zoro has some COOL info! MECCA!" he turned robotically in the direction of Zoro as Zoro started to rexplain what he had seen and what had been going on.

"I can't believe it." Nami said sitting down. "You mean we were that close to taking away a fake Luffy, and …" She didn't finish.

"I still find it hard to believe." Chopper said. "All his scans showed that he had the same blood type, that he had the same … everything. Except for the fact he was younger."

"So." Usopp thought very carefully. "you mean to say that in ten or twenty years time there will be duplicates of ourselves running around the Grand Line?"

"Oooo!" Brook got excited. "It would be lovely to see a skinned version of me. Even though I have been skinned. Yohohohoho!"

'SMASH!'

"Now is not the time Brook!" Nami shouted. She started shaking her head and then fell to the ground at her feet and held her head in her hands. "I thought he was Luffy though. Every part of me thought that he was the real person. I really believed it."

"Well, so did we." Usopp added trying to make her feel a little more comfortable.

"But it's not the same! He was a kid, but I really thought..." Nami looked even more worried than before. "This doesn't add up."

Zoro took a step towards her and was about to say something when Luffy pushed him aside and grabbed a hold of her hand and pulled her up. "Come on." he said.

"What? Where?" she muttered not really wanting to discuss anything with Luffy or go anywhere.

"Let's just go and talk somewhere. Okay. You look tired." Luffy's smile calmed her down a little. If he was going to be serious then maybe she might like his company.

"Do you want me to examine her Luffy? Just to check and see that she isn't coming down with anything." Chopper asked with a worried expression.

"No, she will be alright with me." Luffy answered smiled up at everyone. "Let's go back the ship." he spoke to Nami.

"Oi Zoro!" Luffy called out to him. "Keep an eye out for Sanji, I saw him fetching some water like a couple of hours ago. When he gets back here everyone should get to the _thousand_ _sunny _for the night." he started making his way back up the beach to the miny merry. "Oh! And make sure you save lots of fish for me! I'll be back soon!"

"Alright Captain." Zoro nodded and sat down by the fire, that Franky had just started.

"Luffy, I don't like this." Nami shook her head again. "I'm getting a terrible feeling."

"Don't worry Nami." His hand's grip tightened around hers making her feel safer somehow. "I'm here."

.

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**End of Chapter 8. Sorry it's so late. **


	9. Pirate King's Pleasure

**I don't own One Piece.**

**Please let me know who your favourite character is, and give me a scenario to put them into, and who knows it might just come up in the next chapter. :D**

**.**

**.**

Luffy, Always Bounces Back: Pirate King's Pleasure.

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Chapter 9:

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The sun was setting and the sky had lit itself up with a beautiful golden orange colour. And two members of the strawhat crew were lying down on the lawn of the _Thousand Sunny_ while the rest of the crew were elsewhere. Some idiot might have thought these two were having a romantic talk on the grassy deck looking up at the wispy clouds, but others would instantly say otherwise.

"Oooooo, Nami what about that one?" Luffy said pointing up at the clouds above him.

"I don't know, it doesn't really look like anything to me."

"It looks like a fishman flying."

Nami sighed tired with brain exhaustion. She couldn't take much more of this from an adult even if it was Luffy. She sat up and Luffy followed suit. "I don't understand it Luffy. Why wouldn't you want the other four around for this? We need to find the others as soon as possible. I have a bad feeling about this place and it's not subsiding." Nami swallowed down her worry and looked back up at her captain for his reply.

Luffy unexpectedly to her dismay laughed his whole-hearted laugh and fell back down into the grass of the deck clutching his belly.

"Luffy! This isn't a joke. I think you need to go look for them, Sanji and Robin." She stepped forward and grabbed him by the collar of his red shirt.

"You worry too much Nami." he smiled back up at her, seemingly unworried about being throttled by his navigator. "They are probably just all having a lot of fun right now. They will be back in the morning."

"But then if you didn't want to talk to me about the others then why did you ask to meet me here?"

"Well," he took his strawhat off his head and threw it up into the damp, salty-smelling air and caught it again. "I wanted to just talk to you. I haven't done that in a long time right? Not just the two of us."

"Okay," Nami frowned trying to find a reason as to why her captain would want to just talk. He never just talked. He had the attention span of a 4 year old. She sighed at the irony. "So what did you want to talk about?"

Luffy stopped throwing his hat around for a moment and focused on Nami brandishing his childlike smile at her. "I want to see how much of your dream you have accomplished." He reached out and fixed his hat on her head and tugged her towards him until he knocked noses with her.

"What? But you don't like reading maps."

"I know, but it was your dream right? I want to see how much maps you did draw."

"It's how many maps you have drawn... Actually." she pushed him back a bit regaining some form of reasonable personal space.

Luffy gave her his blank stare and then came his thoughtful face and then his confused face as he tried to work out what she had just said.

"Don't worry about it." Nami sighed and then made her way across the deck to the room entrances that lead into her drawing room. He hopped off after her and followed her closely to her navigation room. She opened up the door and brought her captain into the data cluttered space. She had already gathered up a lot of materials and instruments from many different islands and places that aided in matching up records and measuring up data.

Luffy grinned as he entered. "Wow Nami! I didn't know you had done so much! I thought you were always spending too much time with your Orange trees and Sanji's drinks up on deck, but this is so cool!" He picked up one sheet of paper with lots of unusual swirling patterns on it. "What is this one?"

"That was a drawing of the sky Island that I was thrown to when we got separated, remember."

"What do these swirls mean?" He asked, She grinned stupidly at his simplicity.

"Well, this drawing is just one of the weather patterns that I drew of the island. I did an entire months worth of documentation." She stopped and pointed at another stack of paper. "The rest of it is there."

He walked over and carefully picked up the sheets of paper and started flicking through them. Nami felt a twinge of nervousness rush through her. _What if he thought her work was rubbish? Shut up! He wouldn't know bad work from good work even if he tried too. What if he smashes a table by accident and ruins one of the maps again?_

"These are really good Nami." He beamed back at her. His smile was obviously contagious as Nami reflected back at him almost instantly.

"I still have so much more to do." She turned around and looked back at what she considered to be a minuscule amount. _So much more to do. _

"Don't worry. You have plenty of time to do it." Luffy came up from behind and hugged her wrapping his arms around her waist. She pulled his arms away from her body with difficulty and took his hat back off her head and dumped it back onto his own. Walking over to a pile of papers Nami gathered a collection together that her captain might like to see.

To her surprise her heart was beating three times as fast as it normally was supposed to. _What the hell was happening to me? _She shook her head. _Why __am I__ feeling intimidated by Luffy? What __is__ he doing that __is__ making __me__ feel so uneasy? __I__ never fe__el__ uneasy around Luffy._ She shook her herself again trying to clear her mind of this unnecessary worry. This was Luffy and she had no need to be worried or concerned about him. He was doing this for her. He was just worried about her. That was why he was here.

Yes, she should be enjoying this moment. This was nice. Luffy had never asked her to show him her maps before. In fact she remembered that after spilling a bottle of ink over her work that one time she had practically kicked Luffy out of the room demanding that he was never to come back in. And yet here he was now.

She turned back around to find Luffy sitting on her chair and really looking very at home in her room._ It's like he owns the place. Oh, well I suppose he is the captain. He is supposed to or does sort of own this entire ship_.

"And these Maps are of the Islands in the East Blue." She said handing them over to her Captain.

He took them from her hands and spent a long time just flicking through them.

"This is my Island!" He exclaimed at one drawing.

She felt alarms blaring in the back of her mind when he reached for a pen and ink pot. "Luffy?" She growled out a warning.

"Don't worry. I'm only doing a minor adjustment."

"What is that?"

"This Island needs a Windmill... right... here." and with that he scribbled on a windmill onto her map.

"Okay," Nami reached down and took the ink away from her Captain and pulled the maps out of his dangerous reach. " … I think that's enough for now."

"No! But I was going to draw my tree-hideout as well." Luffy whined.

"No."

"It used to have treasure in it."

"Don't be silly." Nami scoffed. "What sort of treasure did you value when you were small? A hive of bugs and beetles?"

"No! It was real treasure!" Luffy declared.

"Yeah right." Nami laughed. "I seem to remember that you don't really value the cost of real treasure at all. Don't you remember what you did when you first met me?" Her perfect scowl was coming back onto her face. "You just gave an entire fortune away to a village that we had never met before and will never meet again. And you expect me to agree with you that you know how to guard and hide treasure?"

"No, I don't hid my treasure. When I find treasure I will yell it out so everyone can hear me and be jealous." He chuckled in delight at the idea of such a thing happening.

"And that is why the Catastrophe at Water Seven happened." Nami sighed in painful memory.

"But we made friends with Franky and saved Robin so that made it okay. Not all treasure is gold Nami."

"Maybe, but something has to be worth a lot before it can be classified as treasure." Nami said rolling her eyes at Luffy's ignorance.

"You're worth a lot Nami." He said, his dusty, dark, brown eyes locking onto her colourful brown ones. He pushed his hat back off his head and ran his fingers through his jet black hair.

"So what? You're saying I'm some kind of treasure? You are so possessive." she shook her head in mock surprise.

Luffy raised his eyebrows. "Of course I am. I'm going to be the Pirate King."

She flicked her flaming orange hair back over her shoulders. "So tell me my young Pirate King. How exactly do you act possessively over someone who is your treasure when they aren't in need of being rescued? Because you don't show any possessiveness to anything other than food from what I've seen."

Before she knew what had hit her, she found herself up against the wall of her make shift sea-chart library being held up above the ground by none other than Luffy himself.

"I'm glad you asked." He said and then leaned his body into hers and kissed her.

Her mind went into shock mode momentarily, but then kicked itself back into action and she pushed him away from her with her feet causing him to lower her back down to his level. "What the Hell Luffy!" Her breath was catching in her throat. "What do you think you were doing?"

"Kissing you." he shrugged his shoulders and put his hat back on his head.

"I know. But why?!" Nami stepped back from him feeling slightly freaked out. _This was not her free__-__spirited captain that didn't know anything about love, was __He__?_

"Because I felt like it." Luffy answered.

She felt furious. _So clueless!_ "You have to ask permission first! Haven't you read anything decent about how you ask a woman out properly!? You should ask Sanji when he gets back he will give you some pointers about what men should do before just kissing a girl out of the blue like that." She scowled at him and crossed her arms.

"Maybe I should." He took another step back and sat back down in the chair he had just vacated and yawned as if bored. "But I don't really think any of Sanji's tricks and gift thingy's work right?" His dark eyes looked her up and down. Nami's jaw would have dropped to the ground if she had been the one to have eaten the gum gum fruit. _Wait a minute is Luffy checking me out? Does he really think __that I might...__?_ She unfolded her arms when she realized that having them folded made her boobs lift up and put her hands on her hips instead. _I should have worn __a bit more than a bikini tonight._

Nami shook her head in mock amusement. "Either you've eaten the devil fruit of sexual awareness and maturity or you are suffering from some sort of sun stroke." She pointed to the door. "Come on. Get out. You're being weird today." Luffy nodded slowly as if they had come to some kind of understanding, stood up and made his way to the door. Just before going through he paused and looked up at his tall, beautiful navigator from underneath his hat.

He grinned. "I know you love surprises. I've got a big one in store for you."

Nami laughed off his comment and shut the door in his face seemingly impervious of his effect on her. As soon as the door was shut though she melted down its surface. _What was going on?!_ Luffy was never like this. She place a cold white hand over her beating heart and wondered why the hell she was getting so worked up. _It was just Luffy. __I don'__t love Luffy. __I__ couldn't like an idiot like Luffy he was just not intelligent enough._

But try as she might she couldn't get rid of the memory, the feeling of blissful helplessness that had come over her when he had pinned her up against the wall, and the pumping of her blood that had instinctively gone to warm up certain areas of her body that she never even thought about when she was with her idiot Captain.

She shook her head yet again. This was stupid she wasn't falling for Luffy. She wasn't falling for Luffy. She was just a little flustered. That was all.

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**Yay! I love Chapter 9. I can't believe I've finally done it. YAY!**

**Tell me what you think guys. Can you work out the mysterious happenings?**

**What is going on?**


	10. Babysitters

**I don't own One Piece.**

**We all know Sanji wants to be a father right, as long as Nami or Robin is the Mother. And Robin... well let's just say she will make one quire and cool mother. At least we know she can multitask. She will always have a helping hand. :D**

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Luffy, Always Bounces Back: Babysitters.

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Chapter 10:

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It was evening on this strange Island and two silent companions where sat down at the base of a huge tree eating the food the eldest of the two had found for the both of them earlier, well, one of them was eating the fruit she had picked earlier. The youngest was very grumpy-looking for his age, as if he had to prove that he wasn't in fact a child and that he deserved as much respect as a full-grown man. He managed this by scowling consistently, it seemed to him that if he did this enough then perhaps he might even grow up faster. He didn't let a smile pass his face once even when the other had provided them both with food, he had not offered her as much as a thank you or a please.

This youngster was the formerly well-known Pirate Hunter Zoro. However, he was very much unaware of his most recent glorious deeds, for somehow he just could not remember them.

And so Zoro was currently frustrated with himself for being in this situation. He didn't understand what could have brought him here to this place, and he just couldn't believe the strange woman's story. It didn't make any sense at all. It was totally illogical. He didn't believe in such stupid fairy tale stories, he had never done, they were all so stupid, and that was what this one sounded like to him. There was no possible way that he could ever forget something as incredible or important as an adventure like the one that he had apparently been on with all these weird people.

_'__She must think I'm stupid __for__ trying to __lie to me like that and to even __pretend to be my friend..._' his train of thought paused as he redirected his now famous scowl back up at the dark- haired woman suspiciously. Whether she felt his gaze or just noticed him looking she looked back at him and gave him her elegant smile. Well, it would have been called elegant, or '_dazzlingly_ _beautiful_' by Sanji, but Zoro, being someone who didn't really smile even as a child found it rather strange and thought she just looked to damn creepy.

"I still think you're a liar." Zoro spoke into the silence.

"And I still think you look hungry." the elder woman answered. She, Robin, as her words were uttered folded her arms across her chest and created a string of arms that seemed to spring forth from the ground and fly up to the top of the trees to pick fruit and before you could count to ten ten arms had fruit in their hands and unfolded palm and fruit facing skywards for the small boy to investigate.

"I said I wouldn't eat any food from you." he turned his head stubbornly.

Robin sighed, it seemed that they might have had this conversation for a little while. "And I think you need to keep up your strength, if you going to try and run away from me again you're going to have to do a lot better. I won't just let you leave you know, you are going to have to defeat me in order to go back home." she held out the piece of fruit in her hand. "Eat, and regain some of your strength."

Zoro paused for a very long time before finally excepting the offered gift, but even then he didn't eat it straight away. He stuck a finger nail into it as if expecting poison to come gushing out of it. And then shifting away from the old lady, never letting her leave his sight, he lay the beautiful, juicy fruit on the ground he stomped on it watching it splatter like any other normal fruit would. At this result the green-haired trouble maker seemed to become quite satisfied with the fruit, picked up the messy remains that had splattered on the rocky grounds, and slowly dropping the bits and pieces left of the fruit into his mouth, eating them.

His tall companion giggled at the action the child had taken and decided that she would definitely have to write a book about this one day.

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Sanji was walking through the endless forest wondering where the hell he was. He had just walked a long way up to the tallest part of the Island, but there was no settlements in sight at all.

As any person abandoned on an island would do, he began to get seriously worried. He tried not to let his frustration show as he was very much aware that he had only recently been able to stop the child in his care from crying. Not being the sort of cruel person to just abandon a child in need he had decided that he was going to look after him until he found some settlements, but so far he had had no such luck.

"Hey kid, you still alright up there?" Sanji asked as he tickled the kid's feet bringing out another laugh out of the previously depressed child. The boy had cheered up almost immediately when he realized that Sanji wasn't going to leave him behind and became very attached to him. Sanji had been so kind as to put the three-ish year old he had found onto his shoulders for a ride, while he tried to find out where he was and how he could get back to Zeff's place.

The kid seemed to love the view he got while riding Sanji's shoulders and was constantly pointing to things he wanted. He acted like a spoiled brat, whining and demanding things, especially food, from Sanji that the young teenager was not going to provide for the brat. He held himself upright by using Sanji's ears as his own personal handlebars, and trying to turn him in a different direction by pulling one ear as an indicator.

"This place is so big!" the creepy kid said. Sanji had decided to call him C.K. since he didn't know his name, and C.K. being extremely weird in Sanji's eyes, stood for Creepy Kid. Sanji had dropped him once only to have found that the kid's head flattened upon impact and that it didn't seem to bother him at all, as his head snapped back into shape like a rubber band.

"I know." Sanji climbed up onto another rock and looking out over the never-ending forest. "Hey C.K. let's play a game."

"What Sanny?!" C.K. asked him enthusiastically.

"My name is Sanji, C.K. Remember it! SA...N...JI." He pronounced it yet again very slowly.

"It's too hard. I like Sanny!" C.K. Insisted. He pouted looking down at the top of Sanji's head. "Please Sanny?!"

"No. So the game we will play is called who can spot the biggest building?" Sanji continued.

"What buildings?" C.K. Looked around. "I don't see any buildings."

"Well there has to be something around here somewhere." Sanji insisted. There was a brief moment of silence as they both looked around themselves.

"I won! I Won!" C.K. yelled causing Sanji to wince at the noise so close to his ear he thought he could hear an echo inside his mind.

"Where is it?" Sanji looked around with an unbelieving and exasperated sigh.

"It's a floating house out in the water!" he tugged on Sanji's ears and pointed out to sea. "Sanny, see it?!"

"Oh, yeah it's a ship." Sanji raised his curly eyebrows. "I wonder for how much longer they will be there for?" He pulled C.K. off his sore shoulders and gave them a rub to ease away the dull ache that the climb up had created, while C.K. ran around looking at the many different types of small rocks he could see, and testing their quality by putting them into his mouth and tasting them.

"We have to get back down there soon. If that really is the only ship near this place we need to ask them if we can catch a lift back home." Sanji said out loud. He might as well have been talking to himself as it was obvious that C.K. wasn't listening to him.

"Sanny Look!" C.K. Held up a green stone to Sanji.

"Wow." Sanji said in the most unimpressed voice imaginable.

"It's the stone of all green plants. If you keep this in your pocket then you will start to grow green too."

"Oh, really?" Sanji asked, pretending to be vaguely interested, but not really needing to put that much energy behind it.

"Yes." C.K. answered nodding his head absolutely sure of himself. "I want it to." He bent down and picked up another stone. "This one makes all your dreams come true." He waved it infront of Sanji's face until Sanji took it from him and held it up in his hands.

"Ok, I'll see if it works." C.K. started shaking his hands back and forth in excitement as the older guy started to test out the magic. "Hummmm…. I want to see a naked nymph guide me through this damn forest, a singing melodic mermaid to show me the way to the all blue, and a wonderful woman to wake me from this wicked dream in the morning."

"..."

"Can you see the Knacked Nimb yet?" C.K. asked him.

"No, I can't C.K."

"Ohohohoho!" C.K. got even more and more excited. "Look! I found the lady thing that was supposed to wake you up! See over there!"

Sanji's eyes followed the child's fingers to the edge of the forest just a little further away from them. And his mouth almost dropped away from his jaw. He couldn't believe his luck.

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**hehehe! I hope you guys liked that ending of chapter 10.  
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**Sorry I haven't been updating as much as I would have wanted to be. I have been plastering, sanding, and painting my parent's house. Good work, but hard work. Not much time for anything you for the next chapter.  
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**:D**


	11. Getting Together

**I don't own One Piece.**

**Hello dear readers! I can assure anyone who might feel compelled to ask if I am going to complete this story that I most definitely shall, but I do like taking my time. **

**So enjoy this… oh my gosh… It's been since the 23 of September that I last updated this story… Woah. That's almost five months. Whoooops.**

**Sorry.**

**:D**

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Luffy, Always Bounces Back:

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Chapter 11: Getting together

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Sanji inched his way closer to the glade in which C.K. had seen the woman and as he got closer, he beheld her beauty. He was awestruck. She had dark raven hair and beautiful sun kissed skin. And she seemed to be caring for a child as well. She did look a lot older than Sanji himself, but Sanji didn't mind. In fact he thought of it as an interesting challenge.

"C.K.?"

"What?"

"You're going to come with me okay." He held out his hand for the child and C.K. grasped it. It was show time. It was obvious to Sanji that the beautiful woman was indeed a very caring person. Why else would she be looking after a child. Maybe it was her own. If he approached her with C.K. maybe she would want to talk to him as well.

_Thank you gods of the East blue for letting an opportunity like this to pass near me. May I forever be blessed with such great fortune._

Sanji straighten his suit and hoped he looked acceptable, Hoisted C.K. up into his arms and walked into the clearing.

The dark-haired beauty seemed to notice him immediately, and he was at a loss for words her beauty was incomparable.

"Well done Sanji, so you found him."

_What was this angel, that she would know his name?_

He dropped C.K. and ran to kneel before her. "Oh dear sweet angel. I have no memory of meeting you or ever setting my humble eyes upon your stunning beauty, but at your very words… I would be proud to serve your every need if that is your wish."

"Thank you Sanji." The dazzling beauty sighed. "It would seem that you too have been taken in by the memory thieves."

"The Memory Thieves?"

"Yes," she said, "If you drink the water they provide… or something like that, you loss your memories and your age."

Sanji nodded his head. _So maybe she was a little crazy, she was still cute. He could put up with crazy if she could teach him how she liked to play. Yes, he could put up with anything for a little alone time with her, even if he had to go through hell and back._

"My name is Nico Robin, but please call me Robin." She spoke with her angel lips and held out her hand.

"It is a pleasure to meet you fairest of all angels." Sanji took a hold of her hand and kissed it. "Please do tell me how an goddess like you happened to stumble into such a jungle island?"

"Oi! Sanny! Look at that weird kid!"

"I'm not weird!" The short boy with green hair stood up angry and stumped up to C.K.

"Don't be rude C.K. You need to be polite in the presence of a lady."

"What lady?" Sanji reached backwards and hit him on the head lightly to let him know that he greatly disapproved.

"This beautiful lady before us."

"Huh!" C.K. looked up at her and frowned. "Your hair is long."

"Well, you look even smaller than the last time I saw you." Robin reached for Luffy and hugged him to her chest.

"Ahhhh! You're squishing me."

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Zoro shook his head in puzzlement. Apparently from what he could make out that the woman recognized these two weirdos as well as him. _Did that mean that they were all suffering from the same memory and shrinking sickness that the lady had actually been talking about, or was she tricking them too_. Zoro scowled and paid closer attention to the group.

"Sanji, the child that you saved is called Luffy. And he is supposed to be 19 years old, but like you and Zoro here you have all been put under some sort of enchantment that makes you young again and steals away our memories while it does that."

Sanji nodded, not really worrying about what she was saying, but rather just loving the fact that she was saying it to him. "So, there is a way to life forever?"

"Yes, but it comes at a price." She sighed nodding grimly. "Although your age is taken from you and that might make you younger your memories are stolen as well making you feel lost and disorientated. I have also found that to every person that has been changed or had their memories stolen another person takes their place.

"Zoro." Robin looked over to him.

"Yeah what!?"

"The man that tried to take you away was your own personal memory thief. He was you."

"No way!" Zoro insisted. "I'm not going to be like that when I grow up!"

She nodded. "No you're not. You're going to be far more noble and honourable." And with that she turned back and looked at Sanji. "We need to get back to the ship somehow and alert the doctor as to what is happening. Maybe only then can we find a way to change back and regain some of our memories."

Zoro frowned some more. If that creep really had been him or … whatever he was then how on earth was he supposed to beat him. He was one meanas dude. Zoro grinned a bit. "I like the idea of using three swords to fight with, it looks awesome!"

Robin turned back to him and smiled. "And one day you will, or actually, you already have."

Zoro looked at the small group and stood up. "One day! I am going to be the world's greatest swordsman!"

"Yeah! I want to be too!" Luffy joined in. "I'm going to be the best!"

"You aren't allowed to be the best swordsman!" Zoro stated his claim hitting Luffy in the face.

"Owww! But I want to be the best at everything! Not just a stupid sword!"

Robin chuckled to herself and watched a miny fight break out between the two, and then turned back to Sanji. "Now, I know this is a lot to ask from you, but could you please help me in this mission."

Sanji fell into heaven. "I shall do anything for you my beloved princess."

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Luffy stood up on the brow of his ship. It was really beautiful. All he needed to do was get the rest of the crew to drink the water that he intended to provide for them then he and the rest of them can go on their own adventures.

He knew that the person he was now currently filling in for was the sort of person who was very invested and attracted to his crewmates making sure that he was always in their faces and asking them questions, but for him… right then and there, there was only one person that Luffy felt he was interested in. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his navigator. She was wearing a pale blue dress that came down to the knee and she was looking out over the ocean in an almost daze. He would eventually have to get her to drink the water of the island, but for now he could just enjoy her very stunning company. He sighed feeling slightly bad for what he was intending to do to the entire crew, but then shrugging off his useless nagging conscience. He felt the strongest urge to go over there and embrace her, or kiss her, or touch her floating hair. And so he did.

"You look quite cold my navigator." He came up behind her and pressed his body into hers. He heard her gasp in surprise as she felt him behind her.

"What's up with you? You never call me that."

"Well," He used his hands to rub her slightly stiff shoulders. "I just feel really different today." Luffy felt her muscles relax as he massaged her shoulders.

"Different how?"

"You didn't answer my question." He rested his chin on left shoulder. "Are you cold?"

"A little, it's still rather windy, but it's refreshing." She pulled her shoulder away from him, but his neck followed the pull.

Feeling quite adventurous Luffy decided to take a risk and he draped both of his long arms over Nami's shoulders and slumped on top of her. "You're so comfortable." Luffy said resting his head now in the cascading fiery waterfall that was Nami hair.

"Don't be silly Luffy." She tried to pull away, crossed her arms and turned round to face him, which she decided afterwards was probably the worst thing she could have done.

"Tell me…" Luffy leaned in closer and touched her nose with his. "What do you want more, out of everything in the world Nami?" He was now not only leaning against her, but putting all his weight onto her shoulders as well.

Nami huffed, "Once I would have said Money, but now I'm not so sure." She looked up into his eyes and saw a strange unnatural expression on Luffy's face. He crossed his arms behind her head and leaned in and kissed her gently on her lips.

She pushed him away almost instantly. Well tried, his arms just stretched. "Luffy what are you doing?"

He pulled himself in closer and brought his lips to her neck kissing her there. "I just wanted to do that for a long time." He gave out a calm and peaceful sigh. "Tell me what you want out of anything in the whole world."

"I don't know." She felt really embarrassed.

"You know what I want right now?" Luffy whispered. She looked behind him to see if anyone else was standing nearby and watching their awkward show.

"What do you want?" She asked. She had never see Luffy act like this. It felt more like Luffy had been taken over by Sanji's soul. _Wait a minute? Luffy never acted like this. Was this even Luffy?_

"What do you think?" Luffy rubbed the side of her cheek.

Nami felt sick_. If this Luffy wasn't her Luffy then where was he?_

"You can stop now." She said. "I don't … I know … You're not the real Luffy are you?" She knocked his hand away from her face.

"Hellllloooo!" Luffy grinned at her as if she had done something that had just given him a boost of energy. "I knew there was a reason I was getting the hots for you. You are sexy, strong, and smart."

"What are you planning? And where is the real Luffy? He never treats me, or thinks of me this way."

Luffy shook his head. "Now, now, how would you know how he thinks?" He tipped his hat back. "For your information Luffy thinks you're very attractive, but he also thinks that if a woman gets kissed on the lips by a guy it would mean she becomes a mother."

Nami frowned, "What?"

Luffy laughed and leaned against the side rail again. "I know right? It's stupid, but it's quite funny at the same time."

Nami shook her head. This was so confusing seeing Luffy acting like this. "Who are you? And what do you want? Why have you taken over Luffy's body?"

Luffy smiled cheerfully. "I haven't taken over anyone's body, I have been able to grow my own. All I have taken are just some of Luffy's abilities and memories."

"Luffy's memories?" Nami felt her arms and hands start to shake in anger. _Was this Luffy creature responsible for making her Luffy the way he was? _

"Yes, depending on how many memories I might take from someone will depend on how much younger my host's memory bank and body becomes." Luffy nodded. "I managed to borrow quite a few of Luffy's memories. He has a lot of really strange thoughts."

"How dare you!" Nami slapped him across the face he didn't seem to react that much to it at all. "You think you can just take anyone's memories and make them your own. What about Luffy!? What about his dreams! His accomplishments! He won't remember a thing!"

"Just think about it for a moment." Luffy grabbed her hand and held it back looking at her deeply in the eyes. "The strawhats would not disappear nor would they change. Well… give or take a few moderations… like intelligence…where there was none before, and so on." he pointed to himself "We would continue being the same, and you would all be fine. You could live here and grow up together, eat plenty of food and wait until another ship came into harbour that would take you away." He shrugged as if he couldn't see anything wrong with the idea. "You would all still be the same. It's not like we're out to kill you, or erase your existance, we just want to replace you for a short period of time."

"You say that, but how could you do this from the start! Those are our memories! They are what bind us! If we don't have them… we won't even remember that we're friends."

"Well… to be totally honest there are times when Morphers like us haven't recreated a person on a crew." Luffy raised an eyebrow.

"What? And why would that be?"

"Usually because they are absolutely perfect already." He raised her hand up and kissed it.

She was so shocked for a moment she didn't do anything, and then to her horror he pulled her suddenly into his arms. "And I for one think you are perfect."

"Let go of me!"

"Do you really want me to though?"

"Yes! You creep! Do you really think I would go with a fake crew and abandon my own crew on this island."

"Yes I do." He said with a creepy assurance that made Nami blood freeze.

"Well! You're gravely mistaken! I care too much about the others."

"But how much do you really care?"

"A lot! Yes, more than my own life."

"Shall we test that theory?..." Luffy wrapped his arms around her and him quite a few times until it was like they were both ensnared with a living rope. "Because I think I have been bound to meet with you since the beginning of time. And I think you might prefer a slightly different crew."

"How could you think that? I would be seeing all of you everyday and remember where the others are."

"Wow, you intend on seeing all of me." Luffy, very uncharacteristically of him, winked at her. "That's more like it. I am definitely up for that."

Nami blushed a bright red. "Stop it. I didn't mean it like that."

"No need to be shy." Luffy whispered into her ear. "We're alone. You can talk to me this way. It's alright, I don't mind." He tilted her head to the side slightly and kissed her neck. "So, do you love me Nami? Do you think you could continue to love a stupid Captain or one that wants to love you back?"

Nami felt ashamed of the feelings he was awakening in her. _She couldn't push him away and she couldn't free herself. What on earth was she going to do?_

Out of the corner of her vision she could see Zoro jumping up onto the deck from behind _Luffy. Zoro! He was with Robin! Had they managed to get back?_

"ZORO! HELP ME! THIS ISN'T LUFFY! GET OVER HERE AND SAVE ME!" she yelled with as much power as she could. Almost instantly Luffy turned around and let go of his hold on Nami to prepare for the possible attack he might get.

"Nami get back!" she stepped out of the way just in time as Zoro ran for Luffy and drew his blades. Nami ran down the side of the ship looking for anyone else to warn, but there was no one in sight. _Where was Robin?_

Soon the sounds of fighting stopped and she decided to risk going back to take a look. Luffy was flat on his back as if he had something dropped on him from a massive height. "Zoro?"

Zoro looked up. "Don't worry the imposter must not have inherited much of Luffy's powers if that was the best he could do." Zoro looked down on him and stood on his face momentarily.

"Don't Zoro." Nami started and then stopped. He was a fake why should she care. She took a deep breath. "I'm definitely glad to see you though. I can't believe I didn't see it coming."

Zoro looked back at her. "Hey, are you alright? You look really pale."

Nami shrugged and sat down in the middle of the grassy floor of the deck. "I've been better. Right now I'm just trying to recover from having Luffy talking to me like Sanji."

Zoro grimaced. "Sounds terrible." He pulled out quite a large liquid flask from his tunic. "You want some? You look like you need it."

"If it's alcohol then yes please."

He walked over to her. "This is only for emergencies." He looked her dead in the eyes, "Don't you dare drink too much." And then handed it to her.

"Thanks Zoro. You're a life saver." She grabbed the flask and drank it down. She hadn't intended on drinking too much but it tasted unusually good.

"Hey! I said not too much." Zoro pulled it away and looked into the flask, "Great, now I'm going to have to top it up big time."

"Zoro do you know where the others are? We need to tell them what happened." She held her hand out and Zoro took it and pulled her up. "And where is Robin and Chopper they will help to make sense of what it going on here."

"I'm not sure at the moment the last I saw of them was at the beach."

"Right! Well first what … we're going … to do is … is …" She could feel her mind closing away from her and her muscles relaxing. She felt Zoro catch her as she fell to the floor. She was confused and dazed for a moment not quite sure what came over her, but then out of the corner of her eye she saw Luffy get up and walk over to where Zoro was and look down at her.

"Is she alright?" Luffy asked Zoro.

"Yeah, she will be fine."

_No! No! She had been fooled by them! The two biggest idiots of the crew!_

Luffy reached forward and took her hand. "Don't worry I won't abandon you. And you're not going to be loosing too much of your memories. You'll wake up pretty soon and you will have forgotten that this ever worried you."

Zoro looked back at Luffy with a frown. "What do you mean you want to keep her with us?"

"Yes, well I like her. And I don't know what her counterpart will be like yet. So, I want her." Luffy pouted.

"But that was never the plan! It's a bad idea to be attracted to the original, Luffy."

"I don't care. The other her won't have the same reactions to things as she does and I don't want that." Luffy bent over her and kissed her forehead. He then scooped her up in his arms and started carrying her over to her own quarters.

She knew she couldn't move, might never see her real nakama again, and she was probably just about to loose her memories, and she could do nothing. But she felt strangely at ease and comfortable in Luffy's arms. The Luffy that was in love with her…

.

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**Well what do you think guys!**

**I hope you liked that one. :D**


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